Greetings from Yokohama, Japan!

I can't believe I actually attended the International Quilt Week Yokohama 2010. So many beautiful quilts, so many exciting merchants, so many friendly and talented quilters! I am sorry it's taken me a few days to get this blog up. I've just been so busy and slightly challenged technologically what with being in a new place where everything on computer comes up in Japanese characters.

This was my favorite display in the merchant mall. Keiko Geko is a popular contemporary quilt designer in Japan. And she designed all the fabric in the quilts in her display. You can check out her fabric on her Quilt Wonderland website: http://www.keikogoke.com/. The site is in Japanese but you can enjoy the fabrics without knowing the language.

These lovely ladies greeted more than 50,000 visitors to the November 26-28 show at the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall. They were named Minato and Minai for the neighborhood where the hall is located. Don't you just want to get the fireplace going and stitch up one of these warm, cuddly outfits?

Now here's an amazing quilt! Can't believe I got to see Sixty Years Old by Keiko Zeze up close and personal. This is the quilt all of us at Quilters Newsletter picked for the QN Award at the Yokohama show.

And I got to see Keiko Zeze receive her award from QN Contributing Editor Dana Jones. I was happy to meet Ms. Zeze and to see how happy she was to receive the award.

The best part of every quilt show is meeting all the quilters who come. I don't speak much Japanese and these ladies didn't know much English, but we all spoke Quilt-ese so we had a great time together. They wanted a pattern so they could make a Quincie doll but I told them I'm an original--no copies, please. They loved my hair!

Check out the tiger in the background and the penguin below. Too cute. And they have a message, too. Designer Masayuki Kinuta is the center of the KiNUU venture, which brings children and their parents together to make pieced and stuffed animals from recycled materials. The animals remind us that their future--and ours--depend on us taking care of our planet. Mr. Kinuta's animals are more complicated than those the families make in half-day workshops but all the animals share a new approach to patchwork: the stitches are on the surface for all to see.

Kinuta Masayuki's whimsical animals are a fun and worthwhile 3-D take on quilting. His project's name--KiNUU--comes from putting two Japanese words together. Kinu means fabric and nuu means sewing. I really wanted to put this little guy into my bag for the flight home but settled for getting a kit to make my own porcupine. Her quills will be pins since she can double as a pin cushion.

Quilt Market Recap

I had so much fun at Quilt Market in Houston! Wow! I don't know where to start! I guess the beginning is a good place, huh?

I got up at 6:30, did some last minute packing, and then headed to the airport with Kelly and Joli. We got there in plenty of time and boarded our flight. It was packed! Wall to wall people!

Just as we were wondering when we would take off the pilot announced that there was a fuel leak and we had to "deplane". There was a lot of confusion at the airport since half of us were going to Houston and half of us were going to Amsterdam, so we milled around for awhile. Kelly got this shot of me waiting patiently in the lounge.



At some point Orbitz called Kelly and Joli and we discovered that we had to change flights. That worked out fine and we got to Houston late, but in one piece. It was sunny and warm and Kelly was excited to see her first palm tree! Heehee!

After checking in, I took some pictures of the beautiful Houston skyline out my 7th floor window.





You can see Minute Maid field and The Grove restaurant in the photo above.

I needed a nap after such a long day. The other girls headed off to the Fabric 2.0 party at The Grove, sponsored by Stash Books. They must have had a good time! I didn't see them again until 10:30!

They met all kinds of people at the party including Jane Sassaman and Kathy Davis. They even saw a bicycle parade go by. The cyclists were in costume and many of them had decorated their bikes. They got this lovely colorful shot.



After leaving the party, they had a very nice dinner at The Grove, and Tina stopped by long enough to snap this photo. Doesn’t that look delicious?




That was the end of day one and I was happy to be tucked into bed! I'll catch up on day two tomorrow!