Yokohama Quilt Festival - Part 2

Yesterday's post got us through the majority of the full size quilts (although a few more to come) and left me at the start of the the "Small Quilt" section. I checked (yep, got out my tape measure and measured one hanging there) and these were all 50x50cm. No attribution with these ones I'm afraid as the smaller labels were all in Japanese.

There were probably about 150 all together so prepare for some highlights...

This one won a prize. Can you believe the detail?

As did this one:

Then there were the silver and gold rosette winners - the top two in the whole section.

And of course, where you have "small" quilts, a "miniature" category cannot be far behind. I got out that measuring tape again - 20x20cm. The theme was 'stars'. I'll just show a few - there are a lot more in the Flickr set.

This took me through to "The Tale of Genji in Quilts". I have since found this on Wikipedia and so this makes a bit more sense, but the key thing to remember is that everything here was very beautiful.

Next was the "Seoul International Quilt Festival" section. Seoul, as you know, is the capital of South Korea AND where I am heading off to in just three weeks. This first quilt was mental and amazing in equal parts,

Then we come to my favourite section of the whole show. I didn't catch which group had made these quilts but they had all used the same fabrics. I met two of the women and saw the quilts they made and despite the language barrier was able to fully convey my awe and admiration. A number of these are hand stitched!

The one below was my favourite. I shook my head, tutted, gasped, took multiple photos - all the time not realising its creator was standing behind me giggling about my reaction with her friend. 

What awesome ladies. They were so modest and humbly proud and excited to be exhibiting. Brilliant.

This last group were done by "volunteers" according to the labels but I am not sure what that really means in this context. I did particularly admire this Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses quilt though, given that I am currently in a Bee for this exact quilt!

Or how about an applecore EPP - handstitched and hand quilted?

There are so many more quilt photos in the Flickr set! And detail shots of almost all the full size ones (and some of the small ones) I took photos of. All that remains to share is the shopping and what came home with me. On to part 3!

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.