Spring Quilt Festival, Harrogate

I'll be at the Spring Quilt Festival at Harrogate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the mini boro bag workshop at 11.30 a.m. each day.  See you there?

Sashiko in Stockton 2018 - 2019

Here are the dates and info for the next sashiko course in Stockton-on-Tees.  I've added them as jpg files so you can easily copy the image and print it off if needed.

The photo above shows a detail from Pamela Lyall's sampler from my first Edinburgh Patchwork course.  I'll be running the course again there, but we haven't fixed dates just yet.  However, next time, the Edinburgh course will be three long weekends, so for people further afield, you'll be able to have a weekend break in Edinburgh if you want to do the course.

Lilian Hedley's North Country Quilt residential course

Lilian Hedley, who is well known as the UK's number one North Country traditional quilter, is teaching a retreat soon at The Royal, Bridlington, at the end of March.  We went on her course there two years ago and it was brilliant!  Apparently there are a few places still available, so if you are interested, contact Fiona at The Royal asap.  Lilian learned how to design in the North Country traditional from some of the 'old school' quilters, including Amy Emms, so this is a unique opportunity to learn from a living tradition.

 

  

Spring Quilt Festivals - photos from Edinburgh

I'm back from the Edinburgh Spring Quilt Festival and getting ready for the next one at Harrogate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The hall seemed brighter and warmer this year than the first time we had a show there.  I'm really getting to like the Lowland Hall, especially being able to drive into the end of the hall for set up and breakdown.  So much easier than having to take everything up flights of stairs in the cold!

We have a big selection of striped and plain Japanese cottons and colourful fine sashiko threads at the moment, as I've just restocked.  Fiona's 'green' version of Masu is behind Glyn.  She's loaned me it for Harrogate as well, so you can see it there (only sandwiched and not quilted at the moment).  The colours are gorgeous and she's used the stenciled yukata fabrics so well with the stripes.  I like it better than mine.

My workshop this time was the mini boro bag and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun in each session.  It is quite strange telling students to stitch unevenly and at random, when sashiko is much more precise. The photos are in no particular order and the different days seem to have got a bit mixed up in the upload.  I'm running the same class at Harrogate, so I'm making up more packs of vintage Japanese cottons today.

Sashiko from Scotland - planning the Perth samplers

As a follow up to my last post showing Sue's finished sashiko sampler, here are some photos from the last class at Perth, when we started playing around with different arrangements for the blocks.

It is difficult to work out what is going where until you start laying all the blocks out together.  Sometimes there's more than one possibility that would work - here, the kamon crests look good going down the centre, but also stepped across the sampler.

I know which sampler is Sue's because she stitched on brown and added the koi panel on cream, and I know the one below is Heather's, because she used pink in her stitching, but I don't know who did which set in the blue photos above!  Can someone remind me which set is which?  This is a reason why we all need ID labels aka differently coloured edge stitching on all our blocks, otherwise all the sashiko looks so similar!

My next course at Perth starts on Thursday 8th March.  Bookings can be made directly via The Peacock and the Tortoise - http://www.thepeacockandthetortoise.co.uk/

Sashiko from Scotland - Sue's Sampler

Sue Commander, one of the students on my first sashiko course at The Peacock and the Tortoise at Perth, posted a photo of her sampler on Facebook today.  We only finished the course two weeks ago (just!) so she's been really busy putting it all together.  It looks great on the brown and she has coordinated her thread colours beautifully too, including using a very bright yellow/orange/red thread from Olympus as a colour accent.  Well done!

My next course at The Peacock and the Tortoise starts on Thursday 8th March - for details, click here.

Getting ready for the Spring Quilt Festivals

I've been busy packing for the Spring Quilt Festivals at Edinburgh (Friday 16th - Sunday 18th February) and Harrogate (Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th February).  I have a great selection of fine and thick sashiko threads in lots of colours, striped and plain sashiko fabrics (narrow width) and some great new additions to the stencilled yukata cotton ranges.  We will also be displaying some of the finished samplers from last year's sashiko course.

My workshops at the Spring Quilt Festivals this year, and later at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park in June, are for mini boro bags.  These are smaller versions of the bag I made for the V&A book last year.  The bags Fiona made in the photos above and below are about the same size.


Edinburgh workshop details are here and Harrogate details are here.

I'll start you off on making the bag, which you will be able to finish at home.  The workshop pack fabrics are rather special, as we have packed up a combination of new Japanese striped Enshu cotton (from Hamamatsu) for the lining and handles - super strong and durable - with vintage recycled Japanese cotton fabrics for the boro patches.  Depending on how soon the fine white and fine cream sashiko thread arrives from Japan, the stitching thread may be bright red!

Fiona has made more of these bags than me now, so she's been in charge of putting together the boro fabric packs for the workshop.  There will be a really nice mixture of fabrics in them.  This is another of Fiona's bags.

The boro section of the bag is made flat, then sewn up the sides - 

Also by Fiona.  I think she's made more than me now!

If you can't make it to the show, there is a link to a free tutorial for the larger bag on my website, courtesy of the V&A.  I'm also teaching a day workshop on the larger bag at The Peacock and the Tortoise on 11th May - details are on their website.

Your private view of Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2018 (aka my favourites)

We went to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival twice, on Thursday (including for the opening ceremony) and Monday (when we went with our friends from Yuza Sashiko Guild), but for me, the highlight of the show itself was meeting Shizuko Kuroha, who inspired me so much when I started quilting - although my quilts look nothing like her work!  Not only do I admire the amazing way she works with vintage fabrics, but the design and presentation of instructions in her books set a high standard for me.

This video shows her tacking (basting) technique, which really holds the layers well (sorry my camera battery ran out towards the end!)

I loved her patchwork obi.

This amazing quilt was the image used on the show poster. It is all vintage and antique Japanese fabric, including sarasa (Japanese chintz) and indigo dyed greens and blues.

Our second visit, with Yuza Sashiko Guild friends.

Reiko Domon, Keiko Ishikawa, Chie Ikeda and Sakuraba-san flew down to Tokyo on Sunday, so they could go to the quilt show with us on Monday.

Here are some of my favourite quilts from the show. For many more photos, have a look at Patricia Belyea's Okan Arts blog - click here, here and here.  Luana Rubin of eQuilter.com has also got a lot of great quilt photos uploaded to her Flickr album.

The variety of fabrics in the fish was incredible and the quilting was perfect for the design.

All made with chirimen silk.

The use of yukinko (snowball pattern) kasuri ikat on this quilt from the 'Wa' (Japan theme) category effectively represents stars...

 Very appropriate, as the quilt's title is about Tanabata matsuri.

The quilting gives it a great sense of movement.

This quilt about Kintaro and his many exploits was quite amazing and very humorous. Just look at the expressions on those faces!

Oops - I forgot to photograph the label on this one from the Original Design category.  I will see if I can find it in the catalogue later (remembered to buy both this year).  I like how the quilt studio seems to be the biggest room in the house plan!

Glyn studying the first prize winner. The piecing was quite breathtaking.

Lovely taupes featured in many quilts. A lot of detail in the piecing and applique is absolutely typical of the show entries.

Pieced curves, rather than appliqued.

Appliqued borders are a favourite way of adding extra interest.  The quilting echoes the applique here too.  It is details like these that make so many of the exhibits that extra bit special.

Quilt with holes!

Yet another amazing quilt that plays with the Log Cabin structure in a really interesting way.

This quilt uses Kogin samples, but the idea would be great for hitomezashi sashiko as well.

Vintage fabrics make these quilts so beautifully coloured.

Many applique quilts were accented with beautifully worked embroidered details.

The use of these fabrics with strong diagonals in the Log Cabin border made the blocks really flash (like a diamond).

We had tickets for the opening ceremony on Thursday morning, which was attended by Princess Kiko of Ashikino. After the opening ceremony, she was shown around the exhibition, before the public were allowed onto the main exhibition floor.  Princess Kiko has regularly attended the exhibition's opening ceremony, but I don't know if she is a quilter herself (maybe?)

We bumped into friends at the show almost as soon as we walked in.  I think my blue hair makes us easy to spot at the moment! Shuji Yamazaki runs Wabi-Sabi Designs in Canberra, Australia, and I'll be teaching a sashiko class there next October.

We had just finished lunch and taken this photo when we were seen by Shiro Tamakoshi from Euro Japan Links (I forgot to take a photo of us together this time).

Jane MacDonald (BeBe Bold, Queensland) and her husband Peter were almost first in the queue when we went in.  Here we are with Keiko Kawamoto on the Olympus stand.  Olympus are sponsoring me with thread and fabric for my next sashiko book, and I can't wait to start stitching.

After the first day at the show, we went to an izakaya called Gonpatchi in Nishi-Azabu. The food and sake was delicious.  Apparently, this izakaya is very famous because it was shown in the movie 'Kill Bill'.  I haven't seen it and now I have to watch that movie! The building was quite new, but it was decorated with pieces from old buildings, kura storehouses etc. so it had quite an atmosphere.