Hello from Tokyo
Japan!
Today is my second day at the Quilt Festival in the Tokyo Dome – the Baseball
Stadium. 250,000 people attend this weeklong festival – about 35,000 each day.
I’ve been visiting Japan since the early 80s (when I lived in Hong Kong), but
in those days I was traveling to Osaka to textile factories. I’ve been coming
to the Tokyo Quilt Festival for 10 years now, and I can see that the quilts are
dramatically changing here in the last year or two. Japanese quilts have been
known for their exquisite handwork and detail, but now more and more
quiltmakers here are using sewing machines. 2 of the top prizes are Handwork,
and Machine Quilting. Every year I visit the Bernina booth, and yesterday they
were so busy I couldn’t get in the booth.
The Junior exhibit is an inspiration. The work these young people submit, gets
better every year. Several of the quilts have 3-D elements, like little stuffed
figures. These kids are amazing!
There are also more Western tour groups here than I’ve ever seen. On my first
day I’ve run into quilters I know, from Australia, England, France, Spain, and
the US. Last year there were Chinese and Russians too. I am here for 4 days and
every day is an adventure.
After my recent trip to China, it sure is nice to be able to drink the water,
and to have nice clean Western-style bathrooms. By comparison, this trip is
very easy. I wish Sophie could have joined me!
Tonight I went to a big Japanese department store in Shinjuku next to the train
station. We wandered around 8 floors and looked at all the unique Japanese
products, then went to the top floor which had a couple dozen restaurants. We
had traditional tempura and sake, with a beautiful presentation of many small
colored ceramic dishes, each with a special single item.
I am of course taking lots of photos, and will be posting them next week. Watch
for next week’s Midweek Creative Nudge for more details. I like to make sure
every quilt image gives credit to the maker, which often means I have to use
Photoshop to paste in the name in Kanji characters. After all the work these
quilters put into their masterpieces, it’s the least we can do!
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
