Journey to Europe 2: Lea Stansal

On September 9th, after checking L'aiguille en fete PRO we went seeing an exhibition of an amazing artist, Lea Stansal with our friend, Claire.

Her style is very distinctive. The bold combination of colors, threads and fabrics catches our eyes.

When we were invited to exhibit Masako's quilts at a quilt show in Wilverwiltz, Luxembourg, Britta who was a German artist and exhibited her works just in front of us said, "There was a wonderful book sold at Marylene's booth. I'm sure you will like it, so please check it out!".

This is how we knew Lea's books.

Marylene and Claire were Lea's students and let us know about the exhibition before leaving Japan.

The theme was "BOX".  Different kinds of boxes were displayed on the beautifully complicated wooden 3D structures.
It might be boring just to lay boxes in line. But this display showed us boxes at different angles.

This is her new book where all boxes are shown.

Can you see a sticker where numbers are written down in the picture?
The first number,12 means 2012 and she numbered each box.
Why do you think she did it? Because the boxes were available!

Unfortunately the one I wished to have was her favorite and unavailable.

She is slightly older, but more energetic than me! I am learning a lot from her!

Journey to Europe 1: Paris

Emi and I returned to Japan from a 2-week-journey in Europe 2 days ago. There are so many things that we would like to share with you, so we sort them by categories.
Today's theme is "PARIS".

Yes, we know we have been already there twice within the year, but before going to the European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte.Marie aux Mines, we had to stay there to check a wholesale show called "L'aiguile en fete pro" for the first time.

The show was smaller than its retail show "L'aiguille en fete", but we could place some orders for lace and buttons .. we might post some pictures of works using them in the near future :-)

This is our favorite yarn shop called "L'oisive The et Trico". (thier website)
We arrived 1o minutes earlier than its opening, but Aimee welcomed us with pleasure. She didn't know why but thought of us in the morning by looking at the yarns that we bought last time. How sweet! Even if you were not a knitter or crocheter, you would enjoy their lunch.

I'm wearing a scarf which I made with the yarn that I bought there!

If you visited Paris over a weekend, checking flea antique markets would be definitely one of what you must do.

We went to Vanves market again to visit 2 shops in particular which we liked.

He sells fabulous antique buttons. He fluently spoke Japanese. No wonder many Japanese fell in love with the buttons!

She often appears in Japanese books. The way of her decoration is just amazing!

If you felt worn out after walking all day in Paris and were not in the mood for having dinner at a restaurant, or for buying cold foods at a supermarket either, "BOCO" would be a nice choice.

As you can see in the picture, all is made from "100% BIO". Sometimes it may be tiring for tourists who don't speak French to give an order by looking at menu in French at a restaurant, but there you can see anything then take what you like.
Everything is stored in a glass container which I regret to throw away after eating.
They heat it up if you wish!

Yayoi Kusama

During our vacation in Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures, a friend of mine living in Kiyosato took us to a museum in Matsumoto city to visit the exhibition by Yayoi Kusama.

She is very well known in the world. Maybe many of you might have seen her works somewhere before.

The notable feature of her works is dots.

The most amazing thing is that most of exhibited works were made in the last 2 years and she was born in 1929 ..... yes she is already 83 years old! How energetic the works are!

Emi cound not help but dance!

If you would like to know her better, please visit her website .

Some of Masako's books are newly published in other languages

Dear French and Thai readers,

We have new 2 books by Masako published in French and Thai. So please check them out and you don't need to be bothered by Japanese language problems again!


Quilt americain - Adorables motifs varies (les editions de saxe)

If you would like to browse it, please click this and here is further info .


PATCHWORK RECIPE (Amarin printing and publishing)

You can purchase it here .

Workshops in Okayama and Takamatsu

We had been invited to give one of each workshop in Okayama and Takamatsu by a Japanese retail chain company called "Dream" and visited the shops last week.

We took the Shinkansen (the super express train) from Tokyo to Okayama in the morning, which took us more than 3 hours to get there.

The first workshop began at 12:30pm.

Using the interfacing, we made a bag with the orange peel pattern. After a short break during the workshop, students practiced embroidering with a special embroidery needle which had 2 eyes!

At the end of the workshop, everybody got together to take a picture.

The manager of the Okayama shop was a young lady who worked really hard and helped us a lot. Thank you!

Please take a look at the map below. The next workshop of the following day was in Takamatsu (A was where we were and B was where we were supposed to go next.) which was located across Seto Inland Sea. As soon as we said goodbye to the manager we headed to Takamatsu with a special train which went under Great Seto bridge. 





The train looks like this ......

Here are pictures that we took on a train and it was the best time to enjoy the sunset!

The 2nd day in Takamatsu

Takamatsu is a city which is famous for Udon. Have you ever heard of Udon before?
Udon is a kind of Japanese noodle which is made of wheat flour. It usually comes with a cup of cold soup (Zaru-Udon) or is in a bowl of hot soup (Kake-Udon).

We had Zaru-Udon and Kamatama-Udon (the local speciality) for lunch.

The noodles were very chewy and tasted great!

The 2nd workshop began at 12:30pm as well as the last one.

One of the students brought a backpack using my old collection "American Country which was made for her boy.

Bellvue Art Museum

One of Masako's students goes to Seattle to see Ichiro play baseball at Safeco Field every summer.
I'm not sure how many of you know of Ichiro who is a very popular Japanese baseball player and has been playing in the US for a long time.

The game that she watched was the exact one that Ichiro played at as a member of The Yankees for the first time.

Before going to Seattle, she saw a post of our blog where we talked about our American friend, Maggie who lived in Seattle and visited Tokyo then had lunch with us together last May. So she asked me to email Maggie if she knew some quilt shops in Seattle.
Then Maggie gave me info of an exhibition that was held in Bellvue which was just 20 minutes away by car from Seattle.

Last week the student came to CRIB QUILT for a lesson and showed us pictures of the exhibition!

"Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the collection of Corrie Riley"

More than 50 quilts which African American people made from circa the 1910's through the 1970's were displayed. They were literally "bold" as you found the expression in the title!

The collector, Corrie Riley found herself drawn to quilts which had the stunning color combinations and free patterns 50 years ago, and since then it has set her on a quest to look for their quilts.

The materials chosen for the quilts often reflected their intended use. You would find old cotton, wool, corduroy, flour sacks, old blue jeans and fabric remnants.

The exhibition runs until October 7, so if you have a chance to go to Seattle, please visit and tell us your thoughts.

Here is a link of the exhibition. http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/current/bold_expressions/index.html

What do you think this is?

It's not a pair of glasses or just a key ring either .....

It's a pair of scissors!!!

When traveling, quilters are always annoyed by the X ray machines at the airport because usually scissors are not allowed to be brought with us.

Masako travels a lot and her students know well about it, so the other day one of the students gave her it as a gift. The size is only 8cm.

It is a very good price so please check it out if you would like to get it.
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/v-road/1198360/ (This site is only for Japanese customers but I believe many other companies make one of these.)