amuse museum, tokyo

Just two months ago, Amuse Museum opened in the Asakusa neighborhood. The museum is the brainchild of Amuse Inc., a leading Japanese entertainment company.

Fresh and bold, the first-floor Boro exhibit allows visitors to touch the raggedy clothes. The collection of Mr. Chuzaburo Tanaka includes uber-padded and stitched robes that peasants would wrap themselves inside to sleep—like wearable patched futons.

What were once considered of no value, Boro articles are now cherished as national treasures.

tokyo quilt festival : part three

Besides a plethora of booths selling fabrics and quilted handbags, the Quilt Festival developed some outstanding presentations.

Getting to see the actual process steps of indigo dyeing was wonderful. I’ve just bought Jenny Balfour-Paul’s book, Indigo, which will be helpful to extend my understanding—as all the explanations at the show were in Japanese.

Ten diverse quilters each decorated a space with their quilts, furniture and props in a section called “Welcome To My Room.” These were definitely the most compelling exhibits, especially when the artists were present.

Allentown Art Museum from Pennsylvania hung a traditional selection of historic quilts. And Hae-Ja, Kim, a leading nubi artisan from South Korea, stitched on site with a special showing of her sublime quilted clothes.

tokyo quilt festival : part two

The theme for the 2010 Festival is The Tree of Life.

I learned from May Okamoto at the Clover booth about the multitude of tree quilts on bright blue walls. The squares for the 94 quilts were sent in by viewers of a Japanese TV show on quilting.

The network had a team of professionals, under the direction of Yoko Ueda, assemble more than eleven thousand pieces into cohesive and wonderful quilts. Well labeled, each participant could come to the show and see how her piece fits into a “community” quilt. What a great way to encourage quilters to attend the festival!

tokyo quilt festival : part one

I made it—5000 miles from Seattle to the TOKYO International Great Quilt Festival! Under the air-filled Tokyo Dome were quilts of all ilks for a nine-day show.

Quilting lends itself to a huge range of expression, as shown by these detail shots. I bought the show catalog so I can remember all the remarkable professional quilts presented.

all things blue and white, tokyo

Not only did I visit the legendary Blue & White shop in the Asabu Juban district, I was welcomed by its generous owner, Amy Katoh. What a spirited and inspired woman! Amy seems to be non-stop in her endeavors of all things authentically crafted in Japan—in blue and white.

I purchased the shop’s 2010 calendar with bold prints on the top half of each month. My intention is to mount the prints and hang them in my dyeing studio—as they are printed on wonderful paper.

At the front of the store was a small exhibition of Boro work. It’s like shibori—covered with stitching—but much more folksy and textural. I bought Amy's book on Boro and now know more about the remarkable yet practical artwork originally made by poor farmers’ and fishermens’ wives out of neccesity.

Blue & White is two blocks from the Azabu Juban JR train stop, at 2-9-2 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, Tokyo.

a mini scrap quilt

A Dog’s Life, 2010, 27" X 32"
COLLECTION OF NICKI STONE

My mini dachshund loves all the big quilts in our home so I decided to make her a little one. This scrap quilt is made from the scraps of a full-size scrap quilt (see Aug 2008 post).

mother/daughter quilt: day four

With three days in Victoria after Christmas, Mom and I moved our lap quilt project forward. But the top was not complete by my departure time.

I bundled everything up and kept working on the piecing in Seattle over the holiday week. One whole section was jettisoned and I added some new fabric to brighten the composition.

Mom’s 83rd birthday is in February. I will return to Victoria then with a finished quilt filled with our shared energies.

quilt for no. 1

A School For My Mermaid, 2009, 45" x 69"
COLLECTION OF ELIZABETH STONE

For Christmas, Liz received an oversized lap quilt from me. The fish fabric is vintage, probably from Scandanavia. The modern polka dots are from Maurine Noble. Connecting the two is a wavy strip of hand-dyed fabric, made with three 70" pattern pieces—one for the red stripe and ones for either sides.

Hand stitching encircles each fish while the side border is machine stiched-in-the-ditch. Cozy navy flannel backs the quilt.

quilt for no. 2

Woodstock, 2009, 44" x 46"
COLLECTION OF VICTORIA STONE

All tie-dyed, the blue fabric is from Goodwill while the pieces on the back are from Maurine Noble. The fabulous French fabric used for the 1" binding is also from Maurine.

Wildly erratic, the quilting is free-motion machine stitching. The Bernina was set at 1/2 speed and then I floored the speed pedal for attaining the most control. Good thing I am a beginner, so I can forgive myself for the lack of perfection.

(Yardage in thrift stores is beside the tablecloths and draperies. Sometimes batting can be found with mattress covers, near blankets.)

master of mitered corners

For a woman who won’t make precision quilts, I have outdone myself making twenty napkins with mitered corners. That might not sound impressive but it means 160 roll-pressed edges, 80 mitered corners, and 80 stitched edges. I am thrilled to complete a project I started 12 months ago.

These napkins will ship to New Jersey to join up with a table topper I gave to Grace Lynch during a visit last August (see entry: April 23).

mother/daughter quilt: day one

In Victoria last weekend, Mom and I began work on a lap quilt together—making it “my way.” We chose some fabrics and made our first “building blocks” although there was no plan for the overall design.

Nothing was measured. The fabric was sliced up randomly with a rotary cutter. I cut. Mom sewed. I ironed.

After a few hours in the sewing room, Mom begged me to stop. “You have exhausted me, Young Lady, with your counter-intuitive approach. Let’s tidy up and go out to lunch.” That sounded good to me.

I’ll be back to Victoria a few more times this winter to continue on our quilt.

new designer fabric store

Sarah Stine with sample dress made with designer cottons.

Low-rise Magnolia Village, surrounded by residences in all directions, almost feels like a resort town. This weekend I stopped by the neighborhood to check out Sarah Stine’s dream project — a pristine store filled with sewing delights. Her bright and airy shop abounds with boldly patterned fabrics, well-chosen books, modern patterns and my fav, Mettler threads in every color of the rainbow.

Sarah, a member of Plymouth Piece Makers, loves gorgeous fabrics. Her passion shows with her selection of goods and the name of her enterprise — Fabric Crush.

Located at 2313 Viewmont Way West, the shop is open Tuesday through Friday 10 to 5, Saturday 11 to 5 and Sunday 1 to 5. Closed on Mondays. 206.465.6193

creating a goddess

Fertility Goddess, 2009, 12" long

“Goddess” is this month’s Art Chix assignment. Stuffed with brown mustard seeds, this little rag doll will sprout if moistened—a real source of life. The body fabric is hand dyed and cut with a custom pattern.

Body details include free motion stitching for the face and metal snaps painted with nail polish for the nipples.

fiber art extraordinaire

Elin Noble at show opening, Penn Cove Pottery, Coupeville WA

When I saw Elin Noble’s whole cloth quilts today, a chill ran up my back. I was astonished by the simplicity, power and beauty of her work.

The show opening in Coupeville included quilts by Elin and quilts made by other women using her dyed cloth. The setting, a charming pottery gallery on Penn Cove, complimented the fiber art perfectly.

a rose is a rose is a rose

Tokyo Rose, 2009, in progress

Here is something new for me—very precise piecing with curves. It’s possible by following the step-by-step instructions in Ruth McDowell’s book entitled Piecing Workshop.

Done with a freezer paper pattern for each piece, success is all about the prep. Once the pieces are ready, it’s really exciting to see them go together. I can see many possibilities with this technique!

colorful goldendale

Last weekend I stayed with Pat Brim-Williams at her Goldendale home. The location was sublime—smack dab in the middle of a ponderosa pine forest.

On Friday we drove to our destination—a trip that took us down the south side of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge. Late that afternoon we cut and prepped fabric for dyeing.

Saturday started rainy but by noon was perfectly sunny. With our dye concentrates and soda ash solution ready, we headed outside to begin low-immersion dyeing. It was tremendous fun as we dipped, squirted and dabbed dyes on our PFD Kona cotton.

After rinsing and setting the dyes, it was time to iron the fabric. As I had dyed 15 yards, it took over three hours to press all the pieces. Thank heavens for movies on DVD!

We drove home on Sunday on the north side of the river—another memorable drive. The three-day trip was a non-stop pleasure. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

tea party & quilt show

What a delightful tea party on a beautiful September Sunday.

Janet Saulsbury prepared four kinds of tea sandwiches, two flourless chocolate cakes, shortbread cookies and fresh fruit plates—served with hot and iced tea. Trophy cupcakes and more goodies brought by friends kept us all well fed.

Fourteen quilts, made over the previous 12 months, were displayed. All but one went home with happy owners!

It was Hannah Mae’s fourth birthday. She was the star of the party—lovely, well-behaved and fun to talk with.