I have been back from Japan for a week now. Just when I was recovering from the jet lag….Daylight Savings struck! So I am still a little wobbly.
As I mentioned last week, my last day in Kyoto was Girls Day, and my friend took me to the Thousand Buddha Temple – the Sanjusangen-do Buddhist temple. Many years ago I led a tour that came to this same temple on the Seijin-no-Ho which is the Coming of Age Day. Hundreds of young people dressed up in their best traditional kimonos and archer’s historic garb, and there was a huge archery contest behind the temple.
Both holiday visits, I walked through the long temple which literally houses 1000 Golden Buddhas and their guardians. Visitors are not allowed to photograph the inside of the building with the 1000 Buddhas, but it is an experience you never forget.
As we entered, 4 monks sat at the entrance in Spring Green silk robes, silently regarding our respectful passage. On this day, beautiful Ikebana spring flower compositions were displayed in each section. They were so delicate and exquisitely arranged, we gasped with delight at each station as we moved down the long walkway.
For those of you who collect Asian fabrics, you have probably noticed there are less available in the last few years. It is not your imagination. We snap them up whenever they are offered because we know many of you are still avid fans of these beautiful fabrics. But if you see something you like, don’t wait to acquire these collectible items. This week we are celebrating 26 years since we started in the basement of our home. In those early days we started out with a few hundred bolts of Asian prints and Bali batiks. My love of Asian fabrics comes from living in Hong Kong and working in the fashion and textile industries in 10 Asian countries. They are still treasured in my stash!
You might enjoy looking at photos I took in 2010 and 2012, of Japanese Textiles, and my first visits to Kyoto and Nara. If you visit my photo pages, you can scroll back through time from the last Tokyo Quilt Festival in Jan 2020, to these early visits. I traveled to Osaka in the 1980s when I lived in Hong Kong, but never had time for sightseeing or touring in those busy days. At that time I was traveling to source textiles for a multi-national fashion company in Hong Kong.
Many thanks to those of you who visited my Open Studio over the weekend. It was such a pleasure to share my body of work with local friends, artists and quilters. Tomorrow many of these quilts will be shipped back to their venues and exhibits. It was kind of like Christmas when all the kids come home – all my quilts and so many friends in one room!
Sharing our passion for fabric…..
Luana and Paul
www.luanarubin.com
* In the collage above, the top and bottom sections are current Asian fabrics at eQuilter.com – and the central image is a photo Luana took at the 1000 Buddha Temple in Kyoto Japan one week ago.
Travel/Lecture Dates:
Apr 3-6 – SAQA Conference – St Pete, Florida
April 23-25 – Washington DC (Private Event)
April 27- May 3 – Alegre Retreat
May 23-26 – Quilt National – Dairy Barn – Athens OH
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See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, comment on our blog, or follow us on Facebook.
Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.
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