My 15 Minutes With Weeks Ringle

Today marks the 2.5 years mark of our time in Japan. This time last year, we decided to extend our original 3-year plan to four years, and today I am so thankful that we did. It was a decision born mostly out of the desire to postpone having to decide what to do next with our life! But now, one year later, the thought that this would have been our 6-months-to-go point is one that is met with great relief. I am not ready to say goodbye to Japan and our life here! So when you add all those thoughts and emotions together with an enormous year of self-discovery (in regards to what I personally want to do long-term as a quilter), and culminating with 15 minutes of time with Weeks Ringle… It’s all. the. feels.

Let me start from the beginning… Yesterday I travelled around to the other side of Tokyo Bay for the Yokohama International Quilt Week. It was my third time attending the show, and every year it’s gotten better and better. I also much prefer it to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival simply due to it’s much smaller, quieter size! Same quality of quilt, much, MUCH less crowds. I had also finally checked out the program on Thursday and saw that Kaffe Fassett and Weeks Ringle were exhibiting/talking, so I was excited to see their work and hear them in person! Unfortunately, Kaffe was running a workshop all day, but I did get to check out his quilts and admire his amazing colour! But Weeks Ringle was there, and she did a gallery talk at 11am.

She had 3 quilts displayed as a part of the Modern Quilts by American Modern Quilt Artists exhibit, which was unfortunately a no-photo zone! Although you can a bit of Lindsay Stead’s work in the photo above, and below in my photo of the HUGE quilts hanging from the roof you can see Sarah Nishiura’s work in the front and Hazel Hedgehog by Elizabeth Hartman behind (and Kaffe Fassett’s Blue Frames on the right).

Did you know she speaks fluent Japanese?! Weeks spent eight years here during her 20s, and while she didn’t know ‘seam allowance’ or ‘improvisational’, she did her whole talk in Japanese. She saw Meg (@hanabiquilts) and I and offered to do her talk alternating in languages, but a lovely Japanese lady took initiative and translated for us. That was a little weird having an American talk in Japanese and a Japanese lady translate, but it worked! But our patience paid off and afterwards, we were able to spend over 15 minutes talking with Weeks about modern quilting and her story.

First of all, can I just say how lovely Weeks is?! She is so normal, down-to-earth, and funny! She was even fangirling out to having had dinner with Kaffe Fassett! And do you see that quilt behind us? How there’s a gap between the two colours? Entitled Hide and Reveal, this quilt was inspired by the philosophical issues she faced when shopping for a new swimsuit at 40 years old having just returned from China to pick up their adopted daughter. Having to juggle an infant and being 40, she had several phone conversations with Lands End (an American shop that you can apparently phone to discuss swimsuits before ordering??) about what is suitable for a ‘woman of her age’ – can she wear a bikini? A one-piece would be difficult to wrestle with for toilet trips with an infant, so maybe a tankini would be more appropriate? But is that 1-2″ gap between the top and bottoms too much? And thus, a quilt with a gap was made, representing how such a small gap can be such a big issue to ponder for women, and was accepted into Quilt National! You can read her thoughts on juried quilt shows here.

Funny swimsuit stories aside, we of course discussed modern quilting. I’ve always considered her and Bill Kerr to be the parents of ‘modern quilting’ as we know it today. In fact, it was during her time here in Japan that started it all! Weeks was taking ikebana classes – Japanese flower arranging – and you could either choose traditional or free-style. She was frustrated that there was no middle road, no way to take the best of both worlds and make your own path! So when she happened across an exhibit of  quilts by Shizuko Kuroha and saw that you could quilt whatever inspired you, she made her first quilt (which you can only see in her amazing design lecture class on Craftsy – Designing Modern Quilts). Weeks used Japanese fabrics and adapted a pattern in a book to symbolise what a kimono looks like when hung on display, and it looks ‘modern’! Not to mention the fact that they were the authors of the first modern quilting book!

From there, she’s continued to look forward when designing modern quilts to what is around her in today’s world. As she said, we don’t live in log cabins any more, nor are there bears in our front yards! Her belief is that modern quilting is what you make it to be. It’s taking the craftsmanship from traditional quilts and the colours and inspirations from today to express yourself and your life as a quilter. An example of this was Jacquie Gerings quilts on display too – with her famous Bang You’re Dead quilt expressing the horror of gun violence in American schools, and her Building Bridges quilt inspired by the bridges in her hometown of Kansas City. For Weeks, there are no strict guidelines for what a modern quilt must look like, but it’s clear that her modern quilting aesthetic is firmly planted in the interaction and impact of negative space and solids colour play.

But she is also very aware that modern quilting is what it is because of the modern tools we have at our disposal and the practical nature of our finished products. It is because of our rotary blades and well-made sewing machines that the sharp, crisp lines of modern quilts are actually possible and achievable!

One of the final topics we discussed was QuiltCon – she and Bill are tag-teaming being at QuiltCon so that one of them will always be home with their daughter, aw! We discussed a little about the actual schedule and being able to be with quilty peeps in person, before musing about the fact that people will pay to travel across the country (or world!) to attend these classes and lectures with inspiring quilters, but won’t drive an hour or less to the same peoples’ classes locally. We agreed that in part it is the thrill of being at such “big deal event” with friends and other teachers. But as I was thinking about this later, I think it’s also that there is so much incredible online content right in the comfort of your own home, that making the time and effort to get out (organise babysitters, change work, etc) can sometimes just be too hard.

So in light of that, and in my own unbiased opinion, if Weeks Ringle and her husband are in your area, do go listen! Go learn! She has a wealth of knowledge and perspectives to share and those 15 minutes of my life are ones I will treasure forever. And as for the rest of my quilt show photos and such, I will work on getting them up later in the week.

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