Sunday 25 January 2015

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2015 - 2 Flowers

In my second post about Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2015 I will be focusing on flowers.
Most of these quilts were entered in the contest.

These were the largest flowers I saw.
Mikyung Jang (Korea)

A double wedding ring quilt with interesting centres, note the feathered leaves.
 出口清美*Kiyomi Deguchi

 This colourful quilt has a 3D effect.
宮下季久代*Kikuyo (?)Miyashita

This floral display was created by one of the 57 famous quilters whose work was featured in a special section.

I like the off the centre design, and the hand quilting was fabulous.
吉野恵美子*Emiko Yoshino

Back to the contest. In the Traditional section there were many medallion quilts.
This one was stunning from a distance and up close, too. A beautiful mix of piecing, appliqué and quilting.
直井トシイ*Toshii Naoi

Apart from the perfectly planned design, this quilt had a nice shading in the foundation fabric.
菅谷康子*Yasuko Sugaya (?)

Here you have a modern twist to flowering trees, or are they fruit trees?
 赤田千恵子*Chieko Akada

Making Suffolk puffs, or yo-yos, is a great activity when you have 'time on your hands', in a waiting room e.g., but then you come home and have to put them all together...
A bed size quilt made by
杉田恵利子*Eriko Sugita

These roses had a nice sharp look about them.
藤原順子*Junko Fujihara

Whereas these yellow ones were much softer in their shape.
佐藤君子*Kimiko Sato
Lotus flowers
葛城正子*Masako Katsuragi

I like these framed quilts; you can start with a centre panel and then add borders one after another till you have the size quilt you want!
村田久美子*Kumiko Murata

This quilt was unusual in its design, and a real crowd stopper. Lovely quilting design.
 荒田美知世*Michiyo Arata

Cats enjoy flowers, too.
関谷みよ子*Miyoko Sekiya

and so do fish
川口康子*Yasuko Kawaguchi


In this last photo there is a hint of what is to come in my next blog post - thread play!
Some flowers were simply created with quilting and embroidery
葛西和子*Kazuko Kasai

Have you noticed how many small dots there were in the quilts?
Have you noticed how many quilts there were with circular motifs?
Have you noticed how uncertain I am about the pronunciation of the Japanese names?
Why don't you head over to my friend Tanya's blog and read her excellent text about these questions, and don't miss her great photos! Click here and here

27 comments:

Stitching Lady said...

I am speechless in front of those wonderful artworks. Thank you for those beautiful photos, and especially for the detail ones. Perfectioism pure.

Julie Fukuda said...

It would have been interesting to take statistics as to the number of quilts with flowers, those little dots, or both. On the other hand, All those spiderwebs we saw last year must have run their course.
I think my camera missed a lot of those but many I gave up on because of elbows and shoulders. Probably the viewers enjoyed getting a good close-up view. I know I did too.

Queeniepatch said...

Actually the show is so crowded that you can hardly take any whole quilt pictures; that is why I have so many close up pictures! Fortunately the Japanese do such intricate work it can be scrutinised up close!

Queeniepatch said...

Thank you for reminding me of those spider webs of last year; actually I can't recall seeing a single spider this time, or I didn't look for them. Sorry for not adding a lot of text; Tanya seems to be saying it all!

Chris(craft) and Dave(photos) Richards said...

Such fabulous work........Although I am not a quilter, I can fully appreciate these beautiful pieces, thank you Queenie,
hugs
Chris Richards xx

Pippas quilts said...

Such wonderful eye candy thank you for the close ups, food for thought.

Dorothy said...

Thank you for sharing these wonderful photos. The quilts are magnificent! I dream of being able to attend the Festval one day!

Anonymous said...

I am not a quilter, I enjoyed the eye candy and the details of the quilts. Thank you very much, Queenie

Cynthia@wabi-sabi-quilts said...

I love your photos - keep them coming! Sure wish I could have met up with you and Julie!

Séverine said...

All these quilts are wonderful! Thank you for your wonderful pictures.

Annet said...

Thanks for sharing these beauties! I'ts a pity to see the folding lines on some of the quilts.

Michelle said...

What beautiful quilts! That quilting is indeed spectacular. I visited Yokohama Quilt week a couple of months ago and just fell in love with the Japanese aesthetic. You are so lucky to see these shows often!

Janie said...

A celebration of color and stitching. They are skillful with both. Thanks for sharing with us.

Pamela said...

Thank you so much for posting all about these beautiful quilts! I am amazed by all the detail!

Queeniepatch said...

You're welcome! More pictures are coming soon.

Queeniepatch said...

Yes, indeed, you can get a lot of inspiration from others' work.

Queeniepatch said...

Attending the show amongst the crowds is not for the fainthearted! If you can stand being bumped into and waiting patiently for your turn to take a picture, then it is worth attending!

Queeniepatch said...

My next report might be more interesting - I'll look at how thread has been used.

Queeniepatch said...

Julie and I miss you, too, and I am sure you would love to meet Tanya. Imagine how much more we would have been able to see with FOUR pairs of eyes!

Queeniepatch said...

I know you love flowers and at this show there were a lot of floral motifs.

Queeniepatch said...

You are so right! Many, too many, quilts had nasty folding lines. Julie, Tanya and I discussed this. Japanese homes are small and storage space limited. Very few people would roll their quilts on tubes.
Another problem is that you might send in your quilt perfectly packed with bubble wrap and then it is returned to you in a careless and disorderly way. This is the case with the Yokohama show, where your original box and wrapping has been replaced with a simple padded envelope - no wonder there are folding lines in the quilts! If you have your quilt displayed at various shows, and they are returned in such a way, folding lines will form.

Queeniepatch said...

If you liked the quilts in Yokohama you would have loved these. The very best quilts are always held back for the Tokyo show.

Queeniepatch said...

There are several categories for the contest; Traditional, Original Design, Wa (=Japanese fabric or style), Junior, Framed quilts and Bags. With such variety there is bound to be all the colours of the rainbow and stitching galore!

Queeniepatch said...

I hope one day you will be able to join us to see for yourself!

Renee said...

These are all just soooo beautiful. I love, love, love the first quilt. The others are fantastic, too.

Queeniepatch said...

That first quilt was densely quilted in flowing lines, the quilt almost resembled cardboard. The appliqué underneath all the stitching was done with a lot of smaller strips so there was a lot of shading.

Mikyung Jang said...

Thank you for your posting.