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There is still a few minutes left of Wednesday here in Tokyo and I want to post my Work In Progress Wednesday Report before midnight. With the Mola and reports from the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2018, out of the way it is time to launch a new project. Crazy for Crazy I treated myself to Sharon Boggon's excellent book  and will be using it as a course book while learning to improve my crazy quilting. My progress so far is to have set a shape, hexagon as you can see, cut out templates, foundation fabric and  selected scraps in light blue fabric, ribbon and lace for the first block. I have pieced the block and am about to start embellishing it.

This will probably be the last report from the show. We are looking at the professionals' quilts. 'Sensei' is the title for masters or teachers or other pros whom you look up to. Many of the Japanese quilt 'senseis' specialize in only one type of quilt and have honed their skills and never venture into another style of quilting. In the last blog post we looked at a quilt with Cathedral Windows and how it had inspired Julie, Tanya and self into taking on the challenge of trying out that style for next year. We got even more inspiration when we saw EIKO OKANO's (岡野栄子）fantastic Cathedral Window kimono quilt. It is called Edo Kiriko , which is the cut glass of Tokyo. As far as I know this is the first CW quilt Ms Okano has made, but she has made many quilts in the shape of a kimono and almost all her quilts feature a mass of small buttons. In my opinion this quilt was one of the best at the show. A 'sensei' who is highly commended for her PERFECT appliqué i...

Let's turn the corner into where the Wa Quilts are displayed. Wa means 'the spirit of Japan' and quilts entered into this category are often made from recycled kimono fabric, be it elegant silk, maybe with intricate embroidery in silk shading, brown kasuri with specs of white, indigo dyed work wear, flimsy silk for kimono underwear or brocade from the obi belt. These quilts often have a Japanese motif, too. 黒塚サナエ＊Sanae Kurotsuka made good use of brown kasuri for this school of fish 山本与志子＊Yoshiko Yamamoto also used strips of Japanese fabric for her unusual Double Wedding Ring quilt. Somehow it makes me think of an areal view of the intersection of a motorway.  横川れい子＊Reiko Yokokawa got her inspiration from a temple in Fukui. You often see lantern made of wrought iron with intricate lace design. The design is worked in reverse appliqué - a bit like Mola!  伊藤千津子＊Chizuko Ito used the circle, a common Japanese shape, for her quilt.  長谷智子＊Tomoko Hase used various types of Japan...