Yokohama International Quilt Week - part 1, the exhibition

Where else but Japan would people in patchwork animal onesies hand out prizes at a quilt show?

I've been stewing over what I'd saw about the International Quilt Week Yokohama for almost a week now - knowing that no matter what I wrote, you'd feel let down by the lack of photos. It was a tough call for me, deciding whether or not to take photographs at the show and post them here. The exhibition, however, was quite clearly labelled and I didn't want to make the nice women in the hot pink windbreakers do more work than they had to - chasing me and my camera away.  Luckily for you, several people knew how to ask for permission or have been far more willing than I to skirt the rules so I'm including links to those posts and Instagram accounts at the end of the post. I also highly recommend buying the Yokohama 2014 quilt guide. This is the best way to see the quilts as high quality photographs have been taken for publication. I've bought these guides in past years. [Direct links to 2013, 2012 and 2011. Note these are pictorial guides, not pattern books.] I'll have more photos of Japanese fabrics and quilt shops in later posts about my trip.

Instead of bombarding you with photographs of the show (sorry!), I'm including thoughtful reflections on what I saw at the show and links to the makers as I find them. It's a bit wordy. I'm doing my best to paint the exhibition for you in words.

About the Show
This year, the Yokohama show was divided into regions and featured makers globally. I'm not sure if this is the norm or a special feature of this, the 22nd International Quilt Week show. Note: the show last just three days despite the name. The exhibition was divided into sections including Traditional (which was anything but), Message Quilts, Korean Quilts, Past Judges Challenge, Modern Quilts from America and a Kaffe Fassett exhibition among other categories.

I came to the show without any expectations or idea what might be on show, although Alissa Haight Carlton briefly mentioned that she had quilts in the display, I hadn't expected to see so many American quilts contributed. These along with Kaffe's quilts and the Japanese submissions made for a fascinating day of comparing quilting styles and quilting techniques.

The Traditional Section
My favorite quilts were in the section labelled Traditional. These Japanese-made quilts were predominantly classic blocks made in repetition using bright modern fabrics or feedsacks. In Western parlance, these would most likely be classified as Modern Traditional - old made new - not just because of the fabric choices but because of the thoughtful composition, wide borders and the use of bold contrast within each piece. (Edit: See Yoko Tobiishi's photos in the links at the end for some examples.)

Often these quilts feature a classic quilt block repeated anywhere from 25 to 100 times. Sometimes they contain a combination of blocks.  Remember the x+ quilt that started a craze? That would be typical of the quilts in this section.

The blocks may or may not be on a standard grid with or without sashing. Wide borders, often appliquéd, are added to the quilts which create a story or context for the quilt. The border story often ties relates to the fabric choices - alphabets, dress shops, etc... In past years, these have described the quilt with phrases like Black Dahlia or Scrap Basket. The quilts that aren't appliquéd have stitching and fabric details which compliment the centre block design. The graphics and/or quilting on the border is typically large scale. The borders don't always match the quilt, rather they clash in a way that highlights the central work. Borders conveying a story rather than framing a design is something I notice often in Japanese-modern-traditional quilts, but less so in American, Australian or European designs. Not every quilt in this section had these feature, but they popped up again and again. It's something I've really done as yet, but seeing these in person makes me feel like I should explore the idea more in my own patchwork.

The quilting on these Japanese 'traditional' pieces is almost exclusively hand done in fine stitch work. The quilts often feature custom quilting patterns in concentric rings or rows about 1cm apart. Hand-quilting is one area that truly set apart the work of the Japanese quilters from their contemporaries around the globe.  I'm generalizing, of course. Generalizing is never healthy.

In the absence of sharing photos, I've included some digital sketches of elements in my favorite quilts of the show. These aren't intended to be clones of the quilt, rather visual aides to help convey what I liked about each quilt and how they inspired me. In some of them, I've departed a bit from the quilt on display. As I find them, I'll come back and add links to actual photographs and blogs of the quilts makers. I just want to make sure I get the names out there as quilters to keep an eye out for. I'm fairly certain most of my readers would be drawn to the same pieces that I was.

Compass, Sayo Shimizu

Compass by Sayo Shimizu featured the unnamed Holstein block (Brackman 3570) as its central element. I've eyed up this block several times myself and I loved the way it was used in this quilt.
The block was used in repetition with a black/white sashing separating the blocks. The circles in the blocks were rotated at arbitrary angles. The quilting featured concentric rings in the circles and across the pieced x's with quilt lines extending to the edges of the block (unlike my drawing above where they cross in the middle).  To finish the quilt, a wide border was included with alphabet characters and numbers appliquéd around. I've long wanted to use this make a quilt using this block and loved the interpretation.


Octagonal Dream, Yoko Tobiishi

(Edit: See this quilt on her blog) Yoko Tobiishi's Octagonal Dream quilt featured a classic snowball design in nine patches made of feedsacks and vintage fabrics. Despite using the vintage prints, it looked very fresh. The feedsack snowballs were set against alternating blue and white solids backgrounds with connecting pieces of the opposite color between them. A strong lemon yellow border surrounded the blocks with snowballs and connectors extending from the central design. The border snowballs were arranged in wave-like patterns to create the feeling of a lollipop world. The quilting consisted of concentric rings atop the nine patch snowballs in each blocks and small concentric circles in the corners that connect them. The border quilting was tight parallel lines making U shapes into the unquilted corners of the central design. When I first saw this quilt, I was immediately called towards it thinking it felt very modern due to the border. It was only when I was upclose that I recognized the floral feedsacks.

Megumi Yamasaki

The central block that Megumi Yamasaki used was so different to any that I'd seen in a quilt show before, that I'm not entirely sure that I've got the proportions right. The block featured a base diamond with strips and shards that jutted from and across it. The piece was done in a range of neutrals and brights, all very high contrast. From memory there were one hundred of these central blocks. Rather than the diamonds meeting at a point as my digital version does, they formed a ring dividing the quilt into quadrants. Looking at it now in my very rough digital interpretation, I can see there is so much potential for color variation and placement creating many secondary effects with the block. The border was strip pieced and set at an angle with darks in two quadrants and lights in another. The quilting complimented the design creating a strong X pattern.

And others...
Other favorites included work from Miyoko Kodama, Asako Tokuda's asterisks shapes quilt (Edit: photo on instagram and her blog), Yoshimi Seki,  Hitomi Yamada, Masayo Yamaho and Taeko Iwashita. Actually there are just far too many too mention. It was a terrific exhibition. These quilts were brilliant. I had to keep reminding myself that they represent some of the best work in Japan. It was easy to feel small while looking at so many excellent quilts.

American Modern Quilters

The Bias Series, Alissa Haight Carlton. Photographed and shared with permission.

Living in Australia and having never had the chance to travel to a US Modern Quilt Show, it was a welcome treat for me to not only see the work of Japanese quilters but those of some of the top calibre US quilters working in the modern aesthetic. I saw pieces from Alissa Haight Carlton, Latifah Saafir, Elizabeth Hartman, Denyse Schmidt, Jacquie Gehring, Weeks Ringle and others. Each US artist contributed three pieces for the exhibition representing modern quilting. Weeks Ringle was also a keynote speaker and held workshops at the show.

In many ways, it was excellent to see these quilts in person for the first time at the same show where I saw quilts from Japanese quilters and work from Kaffe Fassett. Inevitably I compared the work and elements of the quilts between the cultures. Despite all of the US contributors having very different styles, there were commonalities that contrasted with the Japanese traditional quilts. Generally speaking (and again generalizing is never healthy), the US modern quilts use a lot more open space in their quilts and work in a larger scale. Where the Japanese use scale in the borders, the American quilters used scale central to their designs. The quilts on show had a lightness to them and often omitted borders. Generally the American quilters worked with more solids or shot cottons than the Japanese quilts. The pops of color and contrast were more calculated in their use.

Where the Japanese quilters almost all consistently use the same style of handquilting, their American contemporaries were quite varied - many used domestic machines creating a slightly more rustic look and wavering look to their quilting, some were long-armed with rigid computerized patterns and others were painstakingly done in the tiniest and finest of machine stitching. The quilting work seemed to be the biggest point of difference.

The Kaffe Fassett Exhibition

The third area of the show that I want to mention is the Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably exhibition. Yet again, another approach to patchwork and quilt design was shown. I didn't count, but there were roughly twenty of his quilts on display and I was fortunate to be in the room as he gave a gallery talk about his work (thankfully in English. I'll admit there were a few language barriers for me at the show, but I just soaked it up and let things happen around me!)

Where the American quilters were mostly about the open space and the Japanese traditional quilters seemed focused on detail, Kaffe's quilts seemed rightly all about the fabric. His quilts, again often featuring traditional blocks that he likes, showcase the bold prints that he designs. Quilting is a secondary element that doesn't feature in a strong way - often in the ditch or as a subtle detail.  I feel fortunate to have had these a third counterpoint while enjoying the show.

There were many other quilts around the show representing different regions or styles, but these, along with the past judges challenge quilts, were the ones I was most drawn too.

Collated Links
I guess that's enough for now. As I mentioned, I'm going to go back and try to find direct links to the quilters and quilts at the show, so please do bookmark and check back on this post. I also recommend picking up the Yokohama show guide via Amazon.jp or if you live in a country with a Kinokuniya, you can call them and request they get a copy for you. They should have it, as it was available at Kinokuniya Japan as I was leaving.

In the meantime, you can bounce around the net looking at pictures from the show.

My Quilt Diary - blog post with mini quilts on exhibition
Queenie Patch - blog post very traditional-style quilts
Hanabi Quilts - instagram feed with mini quilts
Blossom Heart Quilts - instagram feed with mix of quilts at the show
Modern Quilt Studio - Weeks Ringle's facebook site. She presented at the show
Yoko Tobiishi (Japanese) - Mixed photos including modern-style traditional quilts
Quilt-Land (Japanese) - Variety of photos of Yokohama and quilts


happy craft, happy travels. --amy