I’ve attended a couple of quilt fairs back in Adelaide – the ones that coincide with the national craft and quilt fair – and I was impressed! But the quilts at the Yokohama Quilt Festival? Certainly up a notch or two! The originality of designs, the multitude of techniques used, the mixture of fabrics and textiles… Ah. May. Zing.
Note: I used a mixture of my iPhone 4S and my point-and-shoot camera to take all these photos. With some editing, they’ve come up to scratch a bit better, but as usual, photos truly do not capture the beauty of quilts like these! To save post space and page-loading time, you can see more photos of close-ups and details in the Flickr set.
When you walked in the entrance, you were greeted by 3 MASSIVE quilts. You think your quilt/cushion/pillow is mahoosive? Nuh-uh…
You can see the people in the foreground for scale! Now if that doesn’t set the tone for what was to come, I don’t know what would! Of course, you weren’t allowed to take photographs in over half the show, but that was ok, because I liked all the ones in the photographable sections the best! Reminder – there’s more photos in my Flickr set so as to save space here! And seriously, go check out some of the detail shots. Incredible quilting, incredible piecing!
I was so happy to see quite a lot of scrappy quilts! In my mind, quilt shows = traditional designs within the same range of fabrics and colours. Some were more random scrappy, like this teeny-weeny courthouse step quilt…
Chikako Tamane by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Or this incredible one – the photos do not do it justice! If you look closely you can see small individual blocks joined by random scrappy piecing. The circular quilting added such movement and dimension!
Shoko Uematsu by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Or more planned like these ones…
Emiko Kobayashi Life by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Yasuko Hamaguchi Hearts Sing by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Hiromi Tsunetsugu by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Tomiko Aida 1 by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
This one was striking – the Japanese indigos, with such tiny piecing and wavy quilting…
Toshiko Shibao by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Then there were the Japanese-themed/inspired quilts…
Hatsue Kobayashi by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Kumiko Hosomi by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Kumiko Koyama by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Megumi Tsuji by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Shizuko Yoshizawa by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Yoshiko Hozumi by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
I don’t think I need to tell you that the sakura (cherry blossom) ones were some of my favourites! That last one in particular was a mixture piecing, fabric painting, crocheted flowers and fabric flowers!
Some of those Japanese quilts crossover into “art quilts” but these were some I just had to highlight…
Sumie Mase by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Kazuko Ikeda phone by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Mitsue Ochiai by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
This one was a little funny. Made by a Japanese lady, there are just a few “typos” that you become accustomed to living in Japan. Although the title had the correct “there/their” on the sign 😉 But nonetheless, it was a fun and cheery quilt! The bows are outlined in ricrac – too cute!
Kayoko Ozono by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
The space/sparkly collection… This one had incredible quilting (didn’t they all?!) in a metallic thread, and those “streams” are sequins! It was such a beautifully sparkly quilt!
The tiny piecing in this one just about did my head in with sympathy! But so effective!
Hisako Chiba by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
This one was one of my top two favourite quilts. I LOVE Starry Night by Van Gogh, it it reminded me of that painting so much. I have never cried over a quilt before, but this almost did it. It was just so beautiful, and full of life and movement due to the piecing and quilting. It had the teeniest of sparkly bit, almost like big glitter, throughout it, plus a metallic thread for quilting… and I just noticed the city quilted onto the bottom border!
Julia Ming-hsiu Hsu by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
These next three were in the “traditional” section… I love the applique border on this one, swapping black/white as appropriate.
Chiharu Katsuragawa Nostalgia by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
I’m not a big applique fan, but I just loved the colours in this one! Note the rainbow/colour wheel effect happening in the border!
Yoko Murakami by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
This may have been classed as traditional, but this just goes to show the murky line that lies between “traditional” and “modern”!
Yasuyo Watanabe by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
Here’s another solids-only one for ya…
Sakuko Tsunoda by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
I leave you with my Number One Favourite quilt from yesterday…
Natsumi Ohara by SewBlossomHeart, on Flickr
The text background? The adorable little creatures amongst the city? The one-piece Statue Of Liberty with the quilting adding the detail?! Winner for me.
Tomorrow I’ll share a few more bits and pieces, but I thought I’d give you what you really want first – the quilts! And to see what I bought, plus a little bit to share with one of you, pop back here on Sunday when I’m guest hosting Sunday Stash for Fiona!
Which quilt is your favourite?!
Jane says
Amazing indeed, thanks so much for sharing!
Cynthia Nanto says
Loved this post! You captured so many quilts that I missed seeing. Reading this post was almost like attending the show a second time. Thank you for sharing!
Fiona @findingfifth says
Wowzers….so many quilts! Thank you for photographing them and sharing so I could see what Japanese quilters are doing.
Rachel Booth says
Wow! These are gorgeous! I’m having such a hard time picking a favorite but I’m with you on the sakura ones…. and I really like the Shizuko Yoshizawa… It reminds me of festivals in Japan! 🙂
audrey says
Absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for posting these!
Books_Bound says
WOW! These are some incredible quilts. The Van Gogh one was incredible–where the pieces on that actually wavy? The Statue of Liberty was really cool–I would never have thought of using quilting like that. The sparkly quilt is too wonderful. My favorite might be the yellow trees though–so amazing!
Captain StitchyPants says
Beautiful! That last cherry blossom quilt is just stunning.
Kristy @ Quiet Play says
Wow! These are amazing! I’m loving the cherry blossom quilts!
moira says
brilliant selection. Such ingenuity and talent
Lara from Luellabella says
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing! My favourites would have to be the gorgeous one by Julia Ming-hsiu Hsu and I have to agree with your comment about the Van Gogh painting – I wonder if she used that as her inspiration? And I also love Sakura – I’d love the Yoshiko Hozumi one to hang on my wall! x
Lyn says
Thank you for sharing the pictures, and your thoughts on the quilts. My favorite (so hard to pick one!) was Chikako Tamane. Were there any sashiko quilts you photographed?
Deborah says
wow! They are amazing. My favourites are the ones with trees. Just beautiful!
Waverlee says
All I can say is WOW! The grammar mistake on the Santa quilt made me giggle 🙂
Crafty Tokyo Mama says
The one with the path through the woods reminds me of Karuizawa and would have to be my favorite among this bunch. However, the chochin one really caught my eye too and ranks number one among the ones that I could actually make myself. Must look for that pattern! Wish I could have been there. Thanks for sharing so many great pictures for those of us who couldn’t make it.
SHIRLEY TENER says
Sumie Mase by SewBlossomHeart, is my Fav.. they all are gorgeous.. and tedious to make but love the detail on Sumie Mase
stitchingandbacon says
I love that misspelling! Their are just so many amazing quilts (I made a funny!). Also amazing work on all of the quilts here. Thank you for sharing them.
becky says
The Kazuko Ikeda quilt, of the beautiful yellow leaves on the trees and falling on the ground was breathtaking, especially when I saw the detail shot on your Flickr page of the yellow stitching. The one by Shizuko Yoshizawa was also beautiful and reminiscent of something I can picture you making. Thank you for sharing all these beauties.