This week I am reaching back to April, to share this beautiful quilt from the Pour l’Amour du Fils quilt festival in Nantes, France. This is from the Quilt Nihon gallery at this French quilt exhibit.
Best of Quilt Nihon 2021
Maker: Toyoko Nakajima – Japan
“Hand to Hand, Make a Circle”
Floral Medallion, hand-applique.
As you will see on my Asia Travel pages, I started going to the Tokyo Quilt Festival in 2010. I went every year until January 2020, which was the very last time this show was held at the Tokyo Dome. My memories of those years are so precious, and I am glad to have all the photos saved in my online albums. Sophie Quinn came with me to this last Tokyo show, and Covid chased us home. Hard to believe…that was almost 4 years ago. I also traveled to Japan in the 80s when I lived in Hong Kong and was working in the garment industry. Mostly I went to Osaka to source textiles. I miss traveling to Japan.
So you can imagine I was thrilled to see these Quilt Nihon pieces in France earlier this year!
If you have had the chance to admire the workmanship of Japanese quilters, I am sure you share my fascination and admiration of quilts created by these talented meticulous quilters. Here in the US, we have an internationally known award-winning Japanese quilter who continues to win prizes all around the world – Kumiko Frydl. She specializes in miniature quilts and she won the top prize in Birmingham this summer for her intricate mini-quilt. Kumiko has won so many top prizes for her tiny quilts, I have lost count. (Here we are together in Birmingham.)
The quilt above is a symphony of appliqued blossoms and trapunto stitching. The lighting was not ideal, but I hope the image gives you a sense of the mastery expressed in this piece. I will be at the Houston Quilt Festival in a couple weeks, and I promise I’ll be out there with my camera recording the new quilt masterpieces to share with you. It has been 4 years since I went to Houston and I am anxious to see the artistry on display.
eQuilter is sponsoring 3 special exhibits. I’ll tell you more about these next week.
Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul
* The photo above was taken by Luana Rubin at the Pour l’Amour du Fils quilt festival, in April 2023.
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
(Thurs Nov 2 – 11 am to 1 pm – Women’s Voices exhibit.)
Luana’s Art & Activism lecture is now online.
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