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| detail from Masako Nishimura quilt |
"Wa" is the category of quilts which means the heart of Japan - just very quintessentially Japanese.
This quilt by Masako Nishimura was one of three winners in the WA category and I just love this quilt!
Notice that although it's a very blue quilt, there is a lot of color. A quilt after my own heart.
Glimpses of the three "wa" winning quilts:
More "wa" quilts (again, so frustrating to not be able to read the cards):
A bright "wa" quilt - Fuji-san - by _______?
Little log cabins feature so prominently in Japanese quilting:
Loved this one and it was so popular -
Shizuko Kuroha is surely the pioneer of "wa" style quilting. She had a special exhibit called "Indigo in Motion: -
Cosmos II by Shizuko Kuroha:
She had some beautiful swatch books on display, This antique indigo is so prohibitively expensive now.
Her quilting set-up. Oh my goodness, so earthy and elegant at the same time.
A note about the vendors. On day one, it was all but impossible to fight the crowds to shop. Day two wasn't that much better. By this week, crowds had thinned considerably and I could more or less browse the vendors.
Akemi Shibata - I love this designer's style - "taupes" but punctuated with vibrant color. Did she have a quilt in the show? I will never know!
One thrill on my first day was meeting Susan Briscoe, who has written several definitive books on sashiko, in English. She has bright blue hair, easy to spot! I introduced myself and we got a picture, with her husband too. I really recommend all of Susan's books! Her latest slim sashiko book called Simple Sashiko is really good, and a good price point too. I also met Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts! But neglected to get a photo!
Another bit of serendipity was meeting Shinobu Yamanaka, the maker of the wool I used in my needlebooks. I couldn't believe it!! I was browsing for wool, for future books, and saw the exact wool I'd already used. Yes, I came home with a bag full of gorgeous options. Her company is called Gurun and it's just the loveliest wool!
One more item - this bag won first place in the "bags" category. How's this for "wa"? Beautiful mix of textures, and subtle color.
Just gorgeous, so organic.
That's all for the "wa" quilts today... although there are others I would consider "wa" to share in my next post -
By the way...... this is very random but I just have to mention that they had wonderful Mozart piped in over the loud speakers, which was lovely. However, they played THE same piece, on a continuous loop, the WHOLE time, every day. How could the vendors stand it after awhile??
For your listening pleasure - try listening to this for 8 hours straight, five days in a row (...or not, ha ha):
Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
xo
Cynthia
