Tokyo Quilt Show part 2

I didn't really do as great a job of photographing as I should have.  You must visit Carin's blog to see a LOT MORE of the quilts at the quilt show.  Carin is so good about giving credit to the quilters and knowing a little something about them all.  Please visit Carin here.

But anyway, here are more quilts that caught my eye at the quilt show.

I just loved this geometric quilt with the fantastic perspective.  This is called Pieces of memories 1 by Misun Chang.

The fabrics used in this quilt were soft and subtle and then getting up closer, the variety of machine quilting designs was inspiring.

This charming chameleon really made me smile with all his colors!  This was called...  Chamelon by Itoyo Kobayashi.  The quilting was wonderful in this quilt and if you look carefully you can see all the fern work that was quilted into the black background.

 Carin and Julie and I were drawn to this quilt which grew on us the more we looked at it.  Julie is hoping to make a quilt for her grandson (nephew?) and the boy has asked it to be black and white.  Hmmm.  Well a little color might set off the black and white more and then we came upon this black and white quilt made very nice with the yellow background.  (Not sure I like the red wall behind the quilt though...)

This quilt was called Warmth by Chizuko Ito.  The black and white fabrics were interesting with just a touch of green on the right hand corner, the pattern was simple, and the quilting was amazing.   This was all hand quilted and all of the yellow had these beautiful quilted circles in a grid.

 Ah...  I think we figured out that the pattern for the quilted circles was a one yen coin!

This was a beautiful quilt/kimono called Edo Kiriko by Eiko Okano.  Edo Kiriko is really a cut glass technique done by Japanese craftsmen in the Edo Era.  By the way, Carin, I've used your photo from your blog... I didn't get a picture of the whole quilt.  Thank you.

(Ah!  And I just happen to have a sample of Edo Kiriko in my photo files from a small display I visited last year.)  You can see that traditionally the cut glass was a deep blue and that designs were incorporated by finer cuts...

Anyway this was an inspiring quilt and somewhere along the line as Carin and Julie and I sat and rested our feet, we got to talking about whether we were up for ANOTHER challenge.  Yes, we all agreed that a challenge keeps us on our toes and it is fun to share the results with each other once a year.  We definitely wanted to do another challenge, and our minds drifted back to this beautiful quilt with the Cathedral Window motif.  Aha!  Announcement everyone!  Carin and Julie and I are challenging ourselves to make something, (ANYTHING!  a vest, a table center, a bag) using the Cathedral Window technique.  Already I am excited!

With all the people still milling around, it was difficult to take photos of the Prize Winners this year.  I sort of slipped my camera in there between people's shoulders.  (Again!  Look at that awful colored wall!)  This quilt was called Memories and it was made by Chikako Akashi.  It won the Friendship Award this year.

I love any quilt with cats!

This was the Second Prize winner and it was called Windblown by Chiharu Katsuragawa.  You might notice that this isn't a square quilt...  All the edges are tiered.

And finally, the Grand Prize was given to a quilt called Heart's Opening Time by Masako Sanada.  It was eye stopping for sure!

Carin and Julie and I had great fun at the quilt show and gave our cameras a workout and got caught up with each other eye to eye and hug to hug.  We have our challenge in mind and that will be another way to keep us close throughout the year (besides blog reading!)

Thank you, Julie! 

Thank you, Carin!
 

Tokyo Quilt Exhibit Part 1 (or part 3 as I've already written two posts!)

I was only at the Tokyo Quilt Show from around 11:00 to 4:00 this year and besides looking at the marvelous quilts, Carin and Julie and I took a couple breathers to sit in the bleachers and chat.  5 hours was just too short and I missed a lot of the goings on because of limited time and because there were so many people that we by-passed a few of the exhibits.  There was a section dedicated to the book Little Women but we couldn't even get near that, and there seemed to be a corner devoted to Eric Carle's works but I only peeked in through the entrance of that.  I never really stopped in at any of the venders' stalls just because it was hard to get into the stalls let alone browse, let alone stand in another long line to pay at some of the stalls.  Just as well, as I didn't need to add any more stuff to my sewing room.

So here are quilts that were on exhibit that caught my eye.  So many!

This was called Wave by Yoko Ueda and the colors and the metallic fabric made the quilt striking.

This quilt was called Heartwarming Bonds by Noriko Masui and Carin and Julie and I admired the way the fussy cutting fabrics had been used.

Here is a detail of one of the rounds...  Do you see that snakey fabric?  I think I even have a scrap of that somewhere in my stash and it was such an awful fabric that didn't blend with anything that I never found a way to use it...  At the left top of this photo is a smidgen so that you can see how it is just a blue wavering line going across the width of fabric...  But this quilter fussy cut it and used just the bumps to make such motion in this quilt!  I think it was Carin who said she had met a quilt artist who when questioned about the waste involved with fussy cutting, explained that the fabric was the art medium and what was thrown out wasn't waste, it was the means for getting the mood that was needed.  Now we can throw out fabric without guilt!

I really liked this quilt though it is far out of what I'd ever attempt or even want in my house.  The title was Tokyo - Summer by Yoshiko Kurihara, and I just loved the colors and the lines of the people in it. 

And as a bonus, the mono-chrome background was this fabric of Tokyo!  There is Tokyo Disneysea on the map!  Carin and Julie sort of hunted for the part of Tokyo where they live but alas, cut up patchwork pieces, it was a bit difficult to find any continuity.  Still, there were some street names and tourist spots that they recognized!

Ah!  Of course I'm drawn to any cat quilt.  This quilt was titled With Red Flowers by Naoko Suzuki (all in Japanese so the translation is mine).  Ms. Suzuki always makes a black and white cat quilt for the quilt show and I think this was in the framed category and was smaller.

I'm afraid I forgot to take a photo of the label on this quilt so I don't know what it's called nor who made it.  Sorry!  It was getting a lot of attention because of the tiny exquisite machine quilting detail.  (That's why I had Carin stick her finger next to the quilt so that you can imagine the size.)

 A closer photo of the quilting.

Aghh! And this was another quilt where I missed getting the name of the quilter.  We went back specifically to see this quilt as Julie is interested in adding to the inside of the vest she had made with Ainu designs.  Ainu are the indigenous Japanese tribe in Hokkaido and they have many tribal designs and art.  Julie is hoping to make her vest into a reversible one with the Ainu designs on one side so we stopped at this quilt to get ideas for color and motifs.

Another quilt in the framed section of the quilt show was this small quilt called Kutani by Mako Suzuki. (Maybe that's the name... I can't read the Chinese characters).  Kutani is actually a type of porcelain in Japan with delicate designs that use gold paint...  This small piece was amazing because it was all hand quilted.

This was a lovely little piece called Fireworks in Moscow by Lyudmila Tsvyleva.  I loved how the "borders" weren't just straight lines and how the firework color went mono-chrome when it got to the borders.

Gee...  I must have spent a lot of time in the Small Quilt Category section.  This was titled The End of Autumn by Isono Takako (?)  The machine quilting in this was amazing.

Though I never got a picture of the whole quilt (and it was big!) we were fascinated by the minuscule hexagons in this quilt.  Carin's finger again?  Such tiny work would drive me crazy!

A Time in the Evening made by Horyo Yufuko was a beautiful quilt made of stitched squares all of different motifs.

 One of the small stitchery blocks.  And notice the smaller blocks in the lattice all had stitchery too!

 Ah... Another quilt by Naoko Suzuki in her black and white cat style.  This year's main quilt by her (which was actually fairly large) was called Cats and Butterflies.

 In the junior category this was a cute quilt called My Face 2 by Chiku Chiku Club Cuddly Brown Apple Class.  This quilt was made of children from elementary second grade to 3rd year junior high students.

I thought I was going to be able to show all the pictures of the quilts I took at the exhibit today but there are still more that I haven't gotten to yet and I've got things to get done today.  Tomorrow?

Mola, Mola Everywhere!

I have an overload of Mola photos today but I was so amazed by the exhibit that I could just go around with my mouth open and shaking my head and saying every so often to Carin and Julie "I can't believe this."

This was the entrance to the Mola part of the exhibit.  Mola was introduced to Japan by Fumiko Nakayama and she has quite a few books published on how to do Mola (in Japanese).  Last year she is was in a small booth giving demonstrations and there was a nice little corner with a few of her works but this year she had a whole section marked off for her own work.  She was at the festival again and was being interviewed and was quite the center of attention.  It was very hard to walk through the Mola exhibit just because of all the people who wanted to see Ms. Nakayama's work and to get close to her.

Mola is a handcraft of the Panama Indians yet it has become so much more under Ms. Nakayama's tutelage.  When I think of Mola, I think of tribal motifs and tropical animals and plants and that was one reason I got so stuck trying to think of a design for my Mola challenge.  I don't KNOW any tribal motifs.  What would I do with one in my house if I DID make a Mola traditional design?  (I think Julie was less confused by the decision making a Mola design than Carin and I because Julie could work with nature designs from her boy scouting.)  This beautiful horse was actually rather traditional and there was another whole quilt near this with a couple of horses in it.  I liked this horse just because Ms. Nakayama got away from the normal square or rectangle quilts that we often make. 

Colors too.  Traditionally Mola is brightly colored with a predominance of black or red yet Ms. Nakayama will stay away from those colors completely in some of her quilts.  This beauty was in turquoises and greens.

This must be a collection of Ms. Nakayama's students' work.  All the cushions and none of them regular square or rectangular.

Ah...  Here we are back at some of the traditional color scheme of Mola.  I loved the details in the frogs!

This striking quilt was along the more traditional lines with many Indian designs even though the colors more varied.

Here is some of the detail from the above quilt.  Look at all those outlines around the alligator.  Let me tell you!!!  After doing my small Mola, those different lines of color really take some planning!!!

At this quilt I began to realize how Mola can be used in so many different non traditional designs.  This was an absolutely beautiful quilt in black of people of the world.  I couldn't get a photo of the whole quilt there were so many people in this corner...  but maybe you can get an idea.  And there was a mirror quilt that was exactly the same in red.  Here you can see (maybe) a block depicting maybe Africa, maybe South America, an Eskimo, and someone from Korea (I recognize the Korean characters).

 I went looking and found the block of a Japanese girl.  I can tell because of the kimono collar.

This was breathtaking though not really that complicated. (HAH!!!  We are speaking relatively here!  This is amazingly detailed!!!)  Though all the black has been cut away from the color and all hand sewn down, the color looks like it was gradation fabric...  and it looks like only two layers were needed to make this.  SOOO beautiful!

On the other end of the spectrum, this was a beautiful "quilt" made into a kimono shape.  It was a shame that the wall it was displayed upon was black because it looked like that grey fabric was rather sheer, which is highly possible because Ms. Nakayama has also spent many years doing the Korean handcraft of Pojagi which uses a sheer cloth.

The circles in this dark quilt were depicting light from fireflies!  It was really lovely and simple.

And then there was a whole wall of framed quilts, maybe 50 or more from scenes of the first Japanese book ever written called Tale of the Genji.  In many of these quilts there were examples of exquisite silk embroidery much like is found on Japanese embroidered kimonos.  It turns out that Ms. Nakayama also spent many years doing embroidery and she must have studied the art of hand silk embroidering on kimono.  It is not something that one can just pick up and do...

The Mola detail in one of the frames...  Do you see what I mean when I say that Ms. Nakamaya has taken the Mola technique out of the primitive tribal designs and used it in so many other ways?  This was really took my breath away (to say nothing of the details in each quilt.)

So who is Ms. Nakayama?

There was a wall near where she sat surrounded by her assistants and fans timelining Ms. Nakayama's career.

In her 20s she began teaching embroidery.
In her 30's she was introduced to Mola.
In her 40's she began combining different handcrafts from around the world.
In her 50's she began doing Pojagi (the Korean technique).
In her 60's she began combining Mola and embroidery (maybe as could be seen in her Tale of the Genji work).
In her 70's she began doing beading embroidery.
In her 80's she continues to search out new types of handcrafting.

 Yes!  Ms. Nakayama is now in her 80's!!!  She sure doesn't look it!

Here was an example of some of the embroidery that Ms. Nakayama has done.

And of course, here is an example of her Mola work.

And this is one of the ways she is combining embroidery and Mola.

It was sort of an unspoken wish between Julie and Carin and myself that we get to show Ms. Nakayama our Mola results.  We had gone to her booth last year and talked with her individually.  Her work and she herself had inspired us.  Though our attempts weren't anything compared to the work she and her regular students do, I thought for three seniors making their first attempt at Mola with just enthusiasm to guide us, that we'd done a fair job.  But for awhile it looked like it was going to be impossible to get close enough to Ms. Nakayama's table this year.  There were just too many people and everyone was asking her to stand so that they could take pictures and she was busily autographing the books that people had bought.  Carin and Julie and I made it through her exhibit once and before turning away completely we pushed our way back into the exhibit room and edged towards Ms. Nakayama's table...

One of Mrs. Nakayama's assistants noticed Carin and her Mola bag first (it helps that we are three foreigners...  we do stand out a bit in a crowd.) and I then drew her attention to Julie's vest which of course claimed everyone's interest!  As I tried to relate the story of how we'd been inspired last year and how we'd given ourselves a challenge, Carin prompted me to get out my Mola wallhanging from my bag.  By this time the assistant had caught Ms. Nakayama's attention and relayed my story of how we three non-Mola creators had tried our best to do Mola.  I tell you!  Everyone was looking at us, we had our Mola waving around to show, Ms. Nakayama seemed very pleased and started in on a conversation with Julie and the three of us got a round of applause from everyone around the table!  Mini-spotlight for the three senior foreigners!

Let me tell you!  That was sure a highlight for me at this year's quilt show!