eQuilter Blog

Having just returned from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, I am just starting to go through all my photos of the beautiful quilts. As I mentioned in the Saturday night newsletter, there is more machine quilting and also an indirect Modern influence showing up at this show…but we still love to see the meticulously detailed handwork of traditional Japanese quilters. It is fascinating to see how old and new are being combined in the Japanese quilts…traditional elements given a modern or contemporary twist…machine stitching where hand-stitching might have been used in the past.

One of the most lovely artistic expressions there, is the love for Japanese art and culture, that is expressed through traditional motifs like cherry blossoms. This was one of my favorite traditional quilts, but you can see it has been given a contemporary twist. This is what I love about quilting …that we have an infinite range of possibilities when it comes to mixing up old and new, brights and neutrals, Western and Eastern influences, etc.

I have just started to upload some photos from Tokyo on my photo page – check back later this week for more quilts! You may recall that I am adamant about showing the name of the quiltmaker along with the quilt image, and often at the Tokyo show I have to paste in the image of the quiltmaker’s name in Japanese Kanji. I am working on that this week! I will post overall show photos without names, but individual quilts will have the name on the image. I hope that others who have visited the show will do the same, so the quiltmakers get credit for their work.

I ran into Lisa Walton at the Tokyo Quiltfest, and we had fun discussing the workshop she will be teaching at eQuilter April 14-15. If you want to learn how to design and make quilts using fusible applique, come and join us for a celebration of creativity with Lisa!

Registration is now open for the Color Marketing Group’s Chromazone which we are hosting in May – for designers, art directors and artists to experience a color forecasting collaboration with color peers.

Now is the time to make a deposit if you want to save your seat on the Polar Rover with me in November, for the Polar Bear Tour. This trip always sells out in advance, but payment plans are available!

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

* The image above features a photo of a quilt from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, with the quiltmaker’s name in the lower left. The strip of fabrics along the left is a collage of new designs from QuiltGate, which just arrived in our warehouse this week.

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Event & Travel Calendar:
Feb 10 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day (Please RSVP!)
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Feb 26 – Marty Ornish CQC workshop @ eQuilter Classroom
Mar 1 – May 15 – Registration for ‘Love Your Mother‘ Quilt Challenge
April 5-7 – SAQA Conference San Antonio TX
April 14-15 – Lisa Walton workshop @ eQuilter Classroom
May 11 – eQuilter Chromazone – Color Marketing Group
Nov 13-19, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Register NOW!

Today I am flying home from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, where I’ve been photographing the quilt exhibits and meeting with Japanese quilters. It snowed right before I arrived, and it has been very cold here!

There is a huge shift going on with Japanese quilting, and it is going to change the way we see Japanese quilts in the next 5 years. More and more quilters here are switching from hand-quilting to machine-quilting, as the masters of hand-stitching are aging…and new quilters are stitching on machines.

The influence of Modern Quilting is seen here, and it is trying to find a category…and not quite fitting into existing categories. In particular I see a shakeup in the Traditional and WA categories, compared to previous years.

There are a lot of Chinese quilters walking the aisles and admiring the quilt exhibits. The quilt movement is very new in China, and it is relatively easy for them to travel to the Tokyo Quiltfest and be dazzled by the Japanese quilt movement which has grown into mastery over the last 30 years. It is exciting to think about what might develop in China in the next 10 years…with their long traditions of textile arts…just as it is exciting to see how Japanese quilters are now translating their quilting skills into a new kind of creativity with sewing machines.

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Opera to see Die Fledermaus (Strauss), one of my favorites. It was great to see the Japanese and European singers together on stage, wearing costumes in the party scene that were inspired by the artwork of Klimt. Before the opera begins, they announce that if there is an earthquake, everyone should stay in their seats. Hmmm.

There is still time to make a quilt for our Love Your Mother quilt challenge and contest, with a BERNINA machine as First Prize, and a juried exhibit in Houston this Fall! We hope you will join the Challenge! (Deadline May 15.)

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul