PIQF 2013: Favorites and Loot

PIQF was a cool show this year and it's almost impossible to pick a favorite.

That said...in case you didn't have time to get through all the photos I posted, here is my short list of really memorable and inspirational quilts - stand outs that caught my eye:


Octopus Garden by Carolyn Winfield

Anne's Quilt by Samantha Ricks - Hawaiian blocks

Wayside Strawberries by Nicole Pullman - hand applique, patterns by Jeanna Kimball - my favorite
My Mom's Jane by Carrie Britten - traditional Dear Jane quilt, beautifully executed, stunning reproduction of the original 1863 quilt

All in The Family by Nancy S. Brown - when Nancy puts a quilt into a show it is always hand applique, and usually the most interesting quilt in the whole show.  This was no exception.

Kingyo (Goldfish) by Naomi Yamamoto - incredible fish, I took tons of detailed photos

Moonbeam by Fumiko Matsuu - beautiful collection of indigo fabrics, super Japanese look

Life by Yoshiko Katagiri - beautiful spiral quilt with an amazing collection of Japanese floral fabrics

Let's Go Party! by Keiko Ike - beautiful machine work, won the best in country award from Japan

In terms of vendors, I had fun looking around and did pick up a thing or two, but not a lot of shopping for me this year.

My most exciting find was marbled fabric.  There is a fabric artist out of Oregon named Marjorie Lee Bevis who makes marbled fabrics by hand.  I picked up a couple of pieces and hope to make them into book cloth for some book covers.  They are unique, no two are alike.  I found them affordable for hand made fabric. 

The other thing I got excited about was the Seam Fix thread eraser.  You are supposed to be able to rip out a seam and use the tip of this plastic bee-hive shaped wand to collect the loose threads so they don't get re-sewn in the wrong place.

Given I have done my fair share of ripping things out, I'm interested to test this.  More news after I give it a try.  Looks like fun though.  Using the tool that is, not ripping out seams.

Golding Spindle & Indigo Targhee Wool

Just a quick post to wish you a happy Friday.  

I finally finished spinning the singles from the naturally dyed indigo wool (Targhee breed).

I'm in love with this wool.  I wonder if my yard is big enough for a Targhee sheep.

Fiber was dyed by A Verb For Keeping Warm, by hand in Oakland, California.

Ring Spindle by Golding.

Naturally Died Yarn: Indigo Targhee & Golding Spindle

When you decide to spin your own yarn, it is usually for several reasons.

Those of you who don't spin are perhaps thinking the reason you do it is because you are nuts.  Well...not exactly.

The types of dyes used on large scale production yarn are mostly acid dyes and have a distinct pallet that can be at times a little 'in your face' for my taste.

If you get fiber that is dyed from natural dyes the colors are more muted, maybe a little easier to wear with your regular clothes.

Another reason to make your own yarn is to choose the breed of the sheep that the wool is from.  This fiber is from a sheep breed called Targhee and their wool is what I consider the cotton candy of wool.  Lofty, airy, like a cloud.  It spins up to a non-itchy yet well wearing yarn.

I am only spinning up a couple ounces of this fiber (maybe I should have gotten more?).  Due to the limited bit that I have of it, I decided to put it on my Golding ring spindle. I'm getting it mostly spun up at bath time while the kids are soaking in the tub, I stand next to them and spin away. 

Colorway is called Indigo Blue Sky, fiber dyed by A Verb For Keeping Warm.

Facts and Rumors from Stitches West 2013

 

 

Tonight I attended the opening of Stitches West in the San Jose Convention Center. 

It is the biggest knitting event in the western U.S. and many sheep have 'donated' fibers from many a haircut in order to make it all happen.

 

There is more amazing color here than I think I've run into in a single place.

 

This was just the shopping preview, and I couldn't stay long, but I did bump into a few very interesting things along the way.

 

In the A Verb For Keeping Warm Booth I found the Verb girls in their beautiful booth (complete with succulent plants!) surrounded by an amazing amount of color and yarns to die for.

 

At the register they had small packs of Liberty of London fabric, as well as scissors by Merchant and Mills.  It was a quilter's British dream come true.  These scissors deserve their own blog post really -  more on them later.

Kristine (Verb owner) has also been working with indigo dyes and fabric.  I am starting the rumor that she will be teaching classes on it soon in her shop, mostly because I personally want to enroll.

Romi Hill, who makes the most amazing shawl pins, was also in the Verb booth and had an impressive collection of pins that were not to be missed.

 

I also stopped by the Becoming Art booth as well with the motivation to ask knitting designer/podcaster/goddess Alana Dakos to create more knit patterns for little boys.  I'm not sure she's about to write an entire book devoted to boy knitwear, but call the idea seed 'planted'. 

I did buy her pattern for the Little Oak sweater which I have good intentions of knitting.  We'll see how that goes.  I also picked up her book called Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf which we read for storybook time with the kids tonight.  It was a huge hit!

I'm taking a knitting class on Saturday morning.  It's on using more than 1 color of yarn at a time.  Maybe I'll pack some hand quilting in my purse in case the going gets tough.

 

Either way, enjoy a couple more photos and stop by Stitches West this weekend for some serious color inspiration if you have the time.



 

 

 

 

 Above:  Kristine and Aday from in the A Verb For Keeping Warm booth

 

 

Above: Hard to believe that the above yarns were ALL dyed with naturally based dyes, no acid dye.  It's true, and it's a sight to see in person.

Tokyo Great Quilt Festival 2013 - More!

Photos are still being posted of the Tokyo Dome Quilt show.  

All of them are a little different, and in their own way amazing:

Julie of My Quilt Diary has several posts. They are all 'do not miss them'! Part 3 has the most blue and white quilts - some of my favorites:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Cynthia at A Quilter By Night has photos of different quilts, equally amazing.
My favorite quilt of the show may be this one - called "To Those Who Have Become The Winds" - so Japanese, so beautiful.

I do also love the octopus quilt though.

Part 1
Part 2 
Part 3

Thank you to those lovely photographers who let us feel like we were there too.

I'm doing a little spinning of some merino and silk fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm.  We'll see if I can make something interesting out of it. 

Verb has started to dye indigo fabric.  I'm looking forward to running into it in person sometime.  Would make for some awesome quilting.

Your Own Personal Forest/Pincushion

Foxtail Creek Studio has captured not only my heart, but my pins and needles too.

I have almost finished the final block in my modern house series, and this mini-forest was by my side for the final lap of applique.

There are some final touches of embroidery still to do, but I'm excited to see the final result of this block and looking forward to starting to put the quilt together.

We are excited to have some family visiting us from out of town this weekend, and planning to maybe ice skate, maybe visit Happy Hollow.  All good fun for kids in San Jose.

Under the umbrella topic of cool things you sometimes bump into:  

• Peapod Fabric's:   Indigo, historic textiles and an antique village in Japan

• Humble Quilts: a red and white feast for the eyes

• Famous quilt fabric designer Anna  Maria Horner teams up with Alabama Chanin:  wow.

• Invisible bike helmet:  having falling off my bike recently (not hurt, just clumsy) this looked cool - no bad hair!  At ~$600, not sure I'm their target customer, but still a creative invention.

• Rainbow cakes:  So popular these days, would love one on top of a pin.

Quilt Shopping in Tokyo: Blue and White

If you are in Tokyo, and you love textiles or quilting, you probably already have Blue and White on your short list of places to visit.  This is the first time I have been to this magical place, and I was over the moon for it.  

By the end of this post you might be green (or blue?) with envy that you weren't there with me.

The shop has been around for ages, and there is even a book about Japan and these colors written by owner Amy Katoh called Blue and White Japan.  It is located in the Roppongi area of Tokyo, official web site here includes address and hours.

I was inspired by several design elements found in the garments and bags for sale.  
 
My favorite technique was the running stitch in thick thread, sashiko weight, mostly using either white or indigo dyed hues.   

Below is the sleeve of a jacket that was completely covered in this stitch.  The designer used the thread to make 3D cone shapes coming out of the garment.  It was just incredible.

Here is a full view:  Amazing, right?

You can see this stitch in handles of bags and a vest in the photo below.  I loved the blue bag here.  Inside of it the lining was made of antique kimono fabric.  I have never seen handles like this for sale (natural twig, split in half with holes drilled for fabric handles).  I would love to make a bag like this:

Pockets were also embellished this way (below):

Just looking in the window is a beautiful sight:

 

I hesitate to put this last photo in of me standing in the middle of the shop complete with hairdo courtesy of 90% humidity and 85 degrees F, but still having a ball anyhow:

Blue and White is on the radar for my next trip.  It might be a while, so in the meantime, post some photos if you end up stopping by there!

Quilt Shopping in Kyoto: Aizenkobo

On my recent trip to Japan I visited Kyoto for the first time.

I have always wanted to go there, and was not disappointed once I finally arrived.

We stayed at the Three Sister's Inn Annex which is a traditional Japanese Inn where you sleep on futon-like mats on the floor.  Our toilet had a place above the tank where you could wash your hands in the water as it was filling the tank for the toilet.  Efficiency!  We could not have found a better place to stay and already we are wondering how soon we can stay there again.  Highly recommend this Inn if you are in Kyoto and want to stay where the staff speaks good English.

There were many highlights in Kyoto that had nothing to do with quilting, but my favorite shop for fabric there was an easy choice:

Aizenkobo!

What:  Aizenkobo - traditional indigo dye workshop.  For sale are fabrics, indigo dyed garments, threads, and household goods


Where:  Nakasuji Omiya-nishi, Kamikyo-ku,
Kyoto 602-8449, Japan
Tel. 81(0) 785 441 0533

When:  Open weekdays 10am - 5:30 pm, (please telephone first for Saturday and Sunday visits), note I did not try to visit on a weekend.


How to get there:  We took a bus line from the Three Sister's Inn, and walked from the bus stop.  They have a really nice map on their web site.


Shopping:  I was after fabric by the yard, of course, to use in quilting projects. 

A lot of the fabric they have is available for sale by the entire bolt only, for the purpose of making a kimono.  

They will allow you to purchase yardage from a limited number of fabric bolts they have.  Minimum cut is 50cm and fabric is not very wide (14" or so).

The fabrics are something you'll have to save up for since they are around $85 USD / yd.  I got a couple of half yard pieces, because I could not resist their beauty.

I found their fabrics to be the highest quality indigo dyed fabrics that I have ever run into and cannot wait to do something special with them.

They also had some hand dyed indigo sashiko thread, so I picked up some of that.  It was pretty affordable.

If you go there, it is slightly cheaper if you can pay in cash (Japanese Yen of course).

A couple of other posts out there have more about the owners, history of the shop and the indigo dye process itself.  Read more here and here.   


A photo of the inside of the shop below as well as a snapshot of the outside along with the beautiful owner who allowed us to photograph her and was a very helpful and warm shop owner/hostess.

When in Kyoto, add Aizenkobo to your short list of places to stop.

 

Shibori: traditionally created Japanese textiles

Another treat I had while at the Voices in Cloth quilt show, was running into Debbie of Kasuri Dye Works.  She used to own a shop in Berkeley, CA that I loved to visit.  When they had sales the line to get in would wrap around the block - it was really crazy.  These days, she does a handful of shows a year, and unfortunately does not have an online shop.

Her fabric is amazing though, so if you get to catch up with her, it is a real treat to see her fabrics and just to meet her.

You can easily find information on how Shibori is created.  There are many techniques.  My personal weakness is for the indigo dyed pieces, as that captures a certain vision I have in my head of traditional Japanese textiles.

I have always wanted to make another kimono quilt.  Many people have made them.  I made one ages ago as a wedding gift.  I hardly even photographed it before I gave it away.  Oops.  Sigh.

Blue and White Japan by Amy Katoh and searching for the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival

By this time in January, the Tokyo Dome quilt show is in full swing and plenty of bloggers have been there and shared their photos.

This year I haven't seen any photos pop up yet, so I am wondering what kind souls will be posting their photos.  Have you seen any pix?  AHHHH!!!  I'm going to die if I don't see some photos soon!!!  Don't tempt me to go there myself next year!

To keep the Japanese Quilting tendencies happy, and after reading Lis' blog post over at Piece n Peace blog, I broke out my copy of Amy Katoh's book called Blue and White Japan.

I have the version that was published in 1996/1997.  There are other versions that were printed more recently.  It discusses why blue and white are the most perfect combination of color, and at some level I have to agree.  It's clean, simple and very easy on the eye.

Lately I've been gravitating to the color combo of turquoise and olive green, but ok...it's certainly not as peaceful as blue and white.

Anyhow, if you are looking to learn about indigo or Japanese textiles, this book is awesome.  I want to visit the shop in Japan someday.

In other news, I've recently become obsessed with knitting striped yarn from Twisted Limone  - an indie Brit dyer.  It's so wild and colorful.  I cannot help but be seduced.  I named my project, "She Blinded Me With Legwarmers".

Indigo Quilt Fabrics and PIQF 2011

I have spent what feels like a lifetime collecting Japanese Indigo fabrics.  

There was a quilt shop a long time ago when I lived in LA that carried a lot of these sorts of fabrics because there was a Japanese owner and she had a passion for them.

These days, my new indigo fabrics come from here and there.  I don't have a great source of them actually. 

I used some in the above quilt block for a baby quilt.  You can see the half square triangles that I made if you squint and look really hard.  Can you see them?  I can almost see them.

I am looking forward to PIQF though, maybe there will be some good indigo's there. 

PIQF - AKA Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 is taking place in about 2 weeks here in San Jose.

I'll be taking the day off to run around the show with my quilting friend to take photos and see what the booths have to offer.

Of course I'll post all the photos up for you, but you may want to attend in person if you can figure out how to get there.  It's worth the trip.

Anybody else out there planning to go?

Finished at last! Table top quilt, hand quilted

I cannot even remember how long ago it was when my mom showed me her beautiful antique quilt top, and I said, "Oh, just give it to me so I can quickly quilt it up for you, Mom!" I think she bought it through a quilt dealer.

Well, "quickly"...doesn't exactly describe the rate at which I get things done sometimes, but I will say that finishing this small quilt was extremely enjoyable and I am thrilled with the end result.

The quilt top itself was pieced out of indigo and white fabrics by an unknown maker circa 1890. Whoever she was, I hope that she's looking down on it thinking - awesome - it's finally turned into a quilt after 120+ years.

My mom's kitchen is an amazing place with more light coming in the windows than any other kitchen I have ever been in. I can only dream of having this much beautiful light in my house anywhere, let alone in the kitchen.

She has it decorated mostly in blue and white, so if she puts this quilt on top of the center of her dining room table, I think it will look pretty smart.

I was trying to finish it for Mother's Day, so I guess it's sort of a belated gift, but anyway I think she'll like it.

Using Pigma Pens, I inked the names of her grandchildren on one of the plain white blocks. This will remain there as a permanent part of the quilt, and will not wash out.

I just love the look of inking words on fabric, and think this turned out pretty cool. She is expecting another grandchild VERY soon, so I left a spot to add the baby's name there too.

I used YLI's hand quilting thread in light brown color (to show off the stitches a bit, how flashy of me!) I have been tending to this use lately, and find that it gets fewer knots than other options.

My next post really should discuss the incredible quilted gift she gave me for Mother's Day (it's another WOW), but I'll need to photograph it for you so you can understand how spoiled I am.

Japanese Quilting Blogs - in search of

My mom's antique 1890's indigo and white mini-quilt is getting quilted little by little.

I spent some time with my monthly weekend quilting friends last weekend and progress was certainly made.

Recently I have been trying to look for Japanese quilting blogs out there.

I know there have to be tons (zillions?) of Japanese quilters who work in taupe fabrics, love Yoko Saito, love Chuck Nohara, love Suziko Koseki.

Where oh where do I find links to these sorts of blogs?

I even resorted to translating "Taupe Quilts" into Japanese, copying that into search engines...I must be doing something wrong here. Oh, bother.

Anyhow, my knitting/quilting club is about to come over tonight so off to feverishly scoop some toys up off the floor.

Summer Reading

Some of you may be reading Moby Dick this summer, or perhaps works of Jane Austin. Meanwhile, I'm digging into more Japanese quilting books.

This book (ISBN4-529-04120-4) by Kuroha Shizuko covers many quilted works using indigo fabrics. Indigos are very traditional Japanese fabrics that these days are more and more hard to come by. Historically, they were created by indigo dye masters.

Back when I lived in Los Angeles, I used to visit a shop (Azabu-Ya) that sold many beautiful indigo fabrics from Japan so I have a little collection that I've been meaning to use.

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth blog also loves to work in indigo. If you have yet to check out her blog, it is a visual feast for the eyes and I highly recommend it.

Whatcha reading this summer? Got any recommendations for me? and PLEASE don't recommend the Twilight series. It's way too addicting, I am not allowed!

Visit From Gramma

How nice is it to have my mom visiting for along weekend?

Um...how handy do you think it is to have an extra pair of hands to juggle the 3 yr old, 6 month old, and entourage of plumbers traipsing through here giving us quote on our currently leaking kitchen sink.

Talk about pulling fat out of fire...perfect timing, Mom!

As if her hands are busy enough bouncing babies and making tents w/ 3 yr olds...she is working on the above cathedral windows quilt in her spare moments. I love the indigo fabrics she's using.

In other news, "Goodness", a Japan-based online fabric shop, is closing their doors and leaving Japan. I say "Badness" to that, since it's one less beautiful source of fabric for us....(boo hoo), but "Awesomeness" to the fact they are currently hosting a liquidation sale of 40% off everything.

Japanese Indigo Quilts

When I lived in L.A. I love a quilt shop called Azabu-Ya. It was on Westwood Blvd. and very close to where I was living while I was working at UCLA.

After I moved away from S. California, the shop closed, but is virtual now and offers tons and tons of beautiful Japanese imports, including some awesome blue and white fabrics.

I'm into the real dark ones including geometrics and flowers. The owner, Mariko, even offers guided quilting vacation trips to Japan.

The above fabric panel is one of many that come as a set. This didn't come from Azabu-Ya, I think I picked it up somewhere else, but it just reminded me of that shop and the fact that I have a billion indigo fabrics just begging to be put in a quilt.

It also makes sort of makes me think of myself playing with my two little sons. Of course, one is still in my tummy, but I'm so looking forward to playing with both of them together. Ah, won't be long now. Only 50 more days, give or take.

Primary election addiction

I know I admitted to being addicted to blogging in my last post, but this time I think it's time to also admit it's hard to turn off the election news coverage on TV.

The confetti, the charisma and excitement, the cheers....it's also a bit habit forming! I'm sure there are others out there that just have a tough time flipping to another channel. This is turning into a nail biter.

Slowly, I continue to do more hand stitching on the Yukata quilt. I decided to use this wine glass pattern in the indigo borders.

I also noticed this cool blog called Sew Sisters that looks like it's associated with the quilt shot. They have a nice shot of some new Japanese taupe fabric, as well as an interesting book by Yoko Saito. Hm...may have to look into getting a copy of that!!