Yokohama Quilt Festival - Part 1

About an hour away from our flat is Yokohama, home to the largest Chinatown outside China, or so I am told. I have blogged about that before, but on this visit I was there for the 2014 Yokohama Quilt Show. 329 photos later...

It was a biggy, and the whole arena was dominated by these four huge quilts suspended from the high ceiling.

Quilts which, bizarrely, I don't seem to have a photo of from the front. Trust me - they were big and impressive. As you came in you were head on with a Kaffe Fassett exhibition with the rest of the exhibits to left and right and then the shopping area at the back behind all that - the same arrangement as at the NEC quilt show in the UK each year. As I walked in I heard a man's voice speaking english and who should it be but Kaffe himself giving an opening address.

I looked at his quilts but was straight away struck by two things.
1. No one else can afford to use this much Kaffe Fassett fabric.
2. These quilts are pretty insipid.
Compared to what modern quilt designers are doing, his designs are purely a vehicle to sell his fabric, which works best in large plain pieces. But hey, that's his thing so good luck to him. There are some pictures at the beginning of my Flickr set if you want to see them.

The exhibition was in sections, with many showing "no photography" signs which was a real shame. However, as you can judge from all the photos I took, there were plenty without this label! To start - a selection of garments and bags. Sadly these were all labelled in Japanese so I can't attribute them properly.

Then Pictorial Quilts. I loved this first one because of endlessly reading the book "Moo Baa La La La" to my niece. The phrase "No No, you say, that isn't right!" is forever suck in my mind. I have been able to attribute these so click on them for more info.

And then next to that one - jaw drop.

Why this quilt is called "Duck Face" I can't think! Lost in translation I guess. The detail was amazing.

Cheeky little British one there, by a Japanese quilter. Then I moved on to one of my favourite sections - "Japanese Quilts". I am not sure how the sections were defined but these are all what I would consider to be in a japanese style. There are close up shots of details of most of the quilts here in the Flickr set.

We then get into "Traditional Quilts".

This one must have taken some hefty planning and organisation.

And from traditional to modern....

This one was rather interesting - using translucent panels between the complexly patched ones. 

And then part of the sky.

No wonder I ended up taking so many photos - the standard of work at this show was through the roof. Even the funny ones were expertly made. Example - Panda Invaders!

Another section was for pictorial quilts inspired by the words "My Beautiful Village".

This next one was by high school students - there were a few done by presumably the equivalent of an A-Level textiles group. Love the sleeping cat!

All this takes me to about half way through my photos. I'll save the rest for another post! Although if you can't wait you can see everything (including all the ones I haven't included in the sections described above) in my Flickr set.

October Makes

Lots and lots of making this month, but I can't show a few of the things since they are presents.

I think I blogged about everything except the jumper, top left, which is on its way to England. It is a jumper I said I would knit my my ickle brother at least two birthday's ago. I have high hopes of it arriving in time for this year, when I suspect he is going to be 22, although it could be 23.

I also have what I made for the 'Twas the Night' bloghop which is hopefully now in South Africa, a birthday present now in France, plus the failed Shibori, although I'm hoping to overdye those and still make them passable. In the meantime I suspect Pooch has managed to give me his cold at last, although it must have taken a full week to develop as he is back to 95% strength - enough to be going for a run this morning. I woke up with a stunning sore throat and head cold so today will be a sofa day and another good excuse for a Supernatural binge. I may even finish Season 6!

Everyday Cuteness in Japan

I think most crafters are familiar with the word 'kawaii' as a genre of cutesy japanese craft like amigurumi crochet and hello kitty. It is a japanese word that basically means "cute" and is used extensively by young women. Before I came here I used to pronounce it 'kai-why' but it should be pronounced 'ka-why-ee'. One of the things westerners notice as soon as they arrive is no matter the seriousness of the situation, there is always an opportunity to advertise or warn against it using a cute character.

Don't get caught in the train doors:

Watch out for trains when you are texting or drunk on a platform:

Stop! A police sign.

There are even more examples in everyday life. Labels:

Traffic cones:

Clothes:

But, despite being bombarded daily with cuteness (even the spam porn pop-ups I get when downloading things are kawaii manga style), I was still taken aback by the kawaii nature of the bag of salt I bought for dyeing with.

So cute! And only about 70p/$1 so not even an expensive bag of salt. Of course I shouldn't be surprised considering that below is the first salt I bought when we moved here and I've been refilling it ever since.

Kawaii Panda! Because of course you cannot use the word 'kawaii' without using at least one exclamation mark. You should try to work that into any pronunciation of the word too, otherwise you risk sounding like a tourist.

The Edo Tokyo Open Air Architecture Museum

An architecture museum is, when you think about it, a really good idea. Especially if your country has a rich heritage of buildings that keep getting burnt down after earthquakes. But consider... the space needed, the logistics (do you move existing old houses or build copies of old ones), the complexity of having a site where each house is potentially its own mini museum. Regardless, the Japanese decided to go for it and built one and it is the Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (english website). This is not to be confused with the Edo Tokyo Museum, which is kind of like the Museum of London in, er, London. This one is about an hour beyond the centre of Tokyo but getting there does involve getting on a bright pink gas powered miniature bus called Coco, which is quite fun.

I was heading there because of a promised demonstration by multiple traditional artisans but when I arrived there was a bonus flea market going on in the adjacent park.

Having picked up a vintage kimono (for me) and a traditional style coat (for my ickle niece) at crazily cheap prices I headed off to find the entrance.

The place was truly fascinating. Logistically, the Japanese had opted for picking up the whole original building and moving it to the site so the variety of buildings and original fittings was amazing. My 117 photos can be seen here but these are some highlights.

The Farmhouse of the Yoshino Family, dating from the 1800s.

The left part is your 'usual' house...

...while the right is the working area with stamped earth floors.

Room sizes are still measured in terms of how many tatami mats the floor takes (you see it in estate agent particulars here) and these mats are the rectangles you can see in the 'usual' photo above. They are traditionally made of woven bamboo. You would never wear shoes if walking on tatami mats so as I went around the various properties I was constantly taking my shoes off and putting them back on again. This was the internal kitchen area.

 

There were a number of houses like this one and each had the open hearth inside, often with someone actually making tea which was being offered to visitors.

See the cast iron fish above the kettle? Of course this made the homes quite smokey but then that also helped keep insects at bay.

There were also some more modern houses, like this residential suburb house from 1925, which was arranged in a western style which was quite unusual then.

The Tokiwadai Photo Studio from 1937 was really lovely.

There was a delicately painted backdrop for the models to stand against hanging in place.

Some of the houses had at least parts of their original gardens with them, like this one which was the House of Korekiyo Takahashi, who was an important politician and it was the site of an important coup. The house dates from around 1900.

The house was very beautifully fitted out inside with lots of panel and screen paintings.

The last section of the museum had been put together to resemble a possible shopping street in Tokyo and this is where the Artisans were, perched in shops as they might have been in the Edo era.

The public bathing house was at the top of the street and had some lovely paintings inside.

A tailor's workshop:

A soy sauce shop:

A stationery store with calligraphy brushes:

A florist:

A beautiful kitchenware shop:

And the Artisans! A Bamboo Weaver.

A Silk Fabric Stenciller.

A Wood Block Printer

A Fine Silk Weaver

That's just to show a few!

I was there for about four hours and that's without dawdling. If you happen to be in Tokyo and interested in such things it is definitely worth a look.

Giveaway Winner and Recent Makes

Fanfare! The winner of the Sew Together bag is Connie from Freemotion by the River. That giveaway was the first time I used the free Rafflecopter gadget and it worked really well - no affiliation, just a little plug for a free thing that worked well.

While that giveaway was ticking along I was busy working on these varied bits and bobs. First of all came the preparation for a bit of Shibori.

You know tie dye from the sixties and still going now? Shibori was the traditional craft it came from and you know by now my fascination with traditional japanese crafts. I am so lucky to have a library near by and the japanese libraries have craft sections to die for. (I couldn't bring myself to put "to dye for" even though I wanted to.) The shibori books in mine vary from 1930s manuals which are 99% text written on very thin paper to more modern glossy picture books - heaven! There is also of course a lot online. This site is especially useful. I have tried some Nui (stitch resist), a Suji type (pleating) and have the perfect bottle for Arashi ("storm" where you wrap fabric around a bottle, tie it and then scrunch it down on itself). You know you have a craft addiction when you go to the supermarket and buy something based on the shape and size of the container, regardless of the contents, because you need to wrap fabric around it. I am off to buy the dye today so have high hopes of getting to work with it this week.

When I was little I had a small woven ribbon pillow and had always admired the way the ribbons interconnected and the effect it created. My recent dabbling and thinking about weaving combined with planning for an upcoming metal frame purse workshop and resulted in this.

I got the ribbon online from this etsy shop. Man, that was slippery stuff to weave! Hence all the pins. I love the effect though and put a small piece to use in this.

And the other side...cats of course.

The workshop is tomorrow evening so this will be an extra one for them to look at before they start making their own.

Finally, some more stitching on my Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses blocks coincidentally coincided with the arrival of a straggler from the I Love Lucy Bee (the top left one).

It may be 9 months late but that just shows it was worth waiting for!

Considering that I have also taught a crochet workshop, knitted a sleeve and finished the top of a machine sewn patchwork quilt this week I've certainly been quite diverse in my pursuits!