New Year in Tokyo

We arrived yesterday (30th December) and everywhere there are preparations for New Year.  This small shrine is near our hotel, and has pine and bamboo decorations called kadomatsu flanking the entrance.  Kadomatsu can be small or quite elaborate.

We arrived, but our luggage didn't, because flights going into and out of Schiphol were delayed due to fog on the 29th.  The weather was good at Edinburgh, and all the way down the east coast. So the time between our flights ended up as about half an hour, which wasn't enough time for our checked in baggage to be transferred.  It is due to arrive at our hotel at 12 tomorrow, even though it is New Year's day. 

This was the view at Schiphol - no airport!

It was clear again coming into Tokyo.

Glyn outside the hotel.  Mystays is a chain, with small but well set up rooms that are more like apato (small apartments), as there's a fridge and microwave, so you can cook in the room if you like.  This one is near Kuramae station, so it is convenient for Asakusa, where we will be going this evening to hear the temple bell ring in the New Year.

Kadomatsu, large and small.

Some places are already selling New Year fukubukuro 'lucky bags' outside.

We walked along the Sumida river to Kototoi bridge this morning, and will return to Ushijima shrine in Sumida Park for hatsumode tonight, after going to the Sensoji temple to hear the bell rung 108 times for New Year.  I will also get hamaya or a 'breaking demons arrow' at the shrine.

We were quite close to the Tokyo Skytree, but didn't go up it.

A map of Sumida -

The Asahi Superdry hall.

 Camellias are in bloom everywhere.

We called in at the Amuse Museum shop on our way back via the shopping streets near the Nakamise-dori, where we had lunch (away from the Sensoji, in less touristy areas, a lot of places have closed for New Year).  It got these excellent books about Taisho kimono design and meisen kimono.

A bilingual book about hanten and happi has some rather interesting information about the true identity of Edo era sashiko firemen's hanten - it turns out they were not worn by firemen at all.  The small book is a handy little moncho or crest book, which I can keep with my teaching things.

We quickly called into Yuzawaya to get some books with patterns for hanafukin (decorative cloth) sashiko designs too.

More later!

Architectural inspirations for quilting - Oxbridge

The people who lived in Stockton-on-Tees in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries built some very decorative public and private buildings.  While some of the buildings in the town centre are quite well known for their decorative brickwork and woodwork, I've been wanting to take photos of various architectural details along Oxbridge Lane for while.  Many of them would be great resources for quilting patterns.  The gable ends of Oxbridge Lane school, my dad's old school, built in 1890, show Dutch influences.  Unfortunately the commemorative stone has eroded over the years.

 

These decorative brick panels on the gables are very Arts and Crafts influenced.

Part of the same panel appears on the front of a rendered house opposite the cemetery.

There's a similar ornate gable over this shop, one of several identical ones on the same building.

Fancy barge boards and finials must have graced many houses when they were first built.  Spot the floral panel again.

This late Victorian house is being restored at the moment.  Luckily the original woodwork looks like it was still in great condition.  I love the heart and swag motifs and the trefoil cutouts at the ends.

The main gable on the same house.

A slightly later semi (maybe c1920?).  This front door also has a colourful stained glass panel which looks original.

Another beautiful original porch.

More original stained glass in this fanlight.

Scrolls and leaves support this lintel.

There are many more elegant designs seen at Oxbridge Cemetery.

The original cemetery railings were removed during WWII. I don't know if the gates are original or replacements, but they are much more substantial than the railings seen on modern houses in the area.  More scrolls and fleurs de lys across the central bar.

Many houses in this area must have originall had cast iron railings, now all gone, and often replaced with wooden fences.  Beyond the roundabout, there's a lot of ivy about.

Further along the lane, some of the original street signs remain.

Most of the 1930s and later semi detached houses haven't fared as well as some of the Victorian ones with their doors and windows.  Almost all of them have large bay or bow windows, which have all rotted and had to be replaced.  The modern stained glass and faux leading doesn't give the same kind of reflections as the originals and the colours are quite different too.  This looked like one of the few old windows left on these houses.

I only spotted one original front door further along the lane.  I walked along this road many times when I lived in Stockton and used to love the patterns in the stained glass and other architectural details when I was a child.  Now I think there must be a quilt design in them!

Sashiko in... Stockton!

I will be running my sashiko course in Hartburn, Stockton-on-Tees, from September 2017.  The venue will be All Saints Church, TS18 5EB, in the middle of Hartburn village (NB, there is another All Saints in Stockton, but the postcode will give you the right one!)  The course will run on the following Tuesdays, from 11.30 a.m. to 4.00p.m. - 12th September, 10th October, 14th November, 28th November, 16th January, 6th February, 27th February, 27th March, 24th April & 22nd May.

The samplers above were made by three of the students from my Edinburgh course which finished earlier this year - from the left, Penny McLaren, Pamela Lyall and Sam Townsend.

As we will have a slightly later start than the courses I run in Scotland and therefore slightly shorter sessions, I'm running the course over 10 sessions rather than 8 and will divide out the course content slightly differently.  Each session costs £32, payable one session in advance each time.  If you would like to join us, please contact me via my website.

I will be arranging the 2017 - 2018 dates for the Edinburgh Patchwork sashiko course soon!

Solstice at Llanarmon-yn-Ial 2016

Denise's Solstice speech and the mummer's play.  Happy Solstice!

Sashiko from Scotland - any more samplers?

If everyone who has already promised their samplers for our exhibition at the Spring Quilt Festivals can get them to Kaleidoscope as planned, we'll have 15 quilts, but Grosvenor Shows have just been in touch to say that they can fit in some more!  So if there are any more out there that could be included, please contact me as soon as possible.  Susan at Kaleidoscope will be able to collect quilts until the end of Saturday 21st January, as they need to have their van packed and ready for the long drive down to the first quilt show at Ardingly at the beginning of the following week.

I haven't been able to contact everyone who came to the first two sashiko courses at The Studio, Loch Lomond, as Isabel no longer has the contact lists with all the student names.  But I would love to have some more samplers from this group.  As well as the sampler, I need a title and a brief description (30 - 40 words is fine) which will be displayed alongside the quilts at the show.

Fingers crossed we will track down a few more samplers to include.  My contact details are on my website www.susanbriscoe.co.uk - e mail is best.

Sashiko from Scotland

Here's a sneak peak at some of the sashiko samplers by last year's Edinburgh Patchwork sashiko course which will be part of the Sashiko from Scotland exhibit touring to all the Grosvenor Spring Quilt Festivals, starting at Ardingly and finishing at Exeter - from left to right, by Penny McLaren, Pamela Lyall and Sam Townsend. Pamela's is a first quilt too! This is the introduction I've written for the exhibition -

This exhibition is a selection of sashiko sampler quilts from the four courses I taught in Scotland since 2013 - two at The Studio, Loch Lomond; one at Edinburgh Patchwork and the fourth at Kaleidoscope, near Glasgow.  Ruth Higham, who founded The Studio with Isabel Patterson and Patricia Macindoe, persuaded me that there were enough stitchers interested in Japanese sashiko to run a longer course. The Studio was prepared to host it, so I ran the first eight day course there, over 10 months.  We did many Yuza and Shonai Sashiko patterns, drawing on my links with Yuza Sashiko Guild, and it has evolved to include a wide variety of larger sashiko designs over the years, so later samplers have grown!  My aim is to introduce the students to various pattern marking and stitching techniques, so by the end of the course they can look at almost any piece of sashiko and say ‘I can try that!’ 

I will be running courses at Edinburgh Patchwork and in Stockton-on-Tees from September 2017.  My next course starts at The Peacock and the Tortoise in Perth in March and we are looking at running another course at Kaleidoscope.  Please contact me for details via www.susanbriscoe.co.uk

This is our second Edinburgh Patchwork group at their third session last Saturday.  They are producing some lovely work, both for their samplers and other smaller projects some of them are doing on their own, in between classes.

 

These are some of the sashiko panels that were started at the previous weekend's day class, where we made flowers, leaves and Japanese motif templates by paper folding and used those to make designs.

Penny's noren curtain has a moon and crane motif, but the marking doesn't show up much in the photo!

Fiona and Jo had got most of their panels stitched by Saturday.  Lovely use of colour in these sashiko panels.  I'm looking forward to seeing the others finished.