Tokyo Basket Quilts

Time for May Baskets! Jan's recent posting (Bemused) http://bemused.typepad.com/bemused/ ) reminded me of the 80 basket quilts made of challenge blocks at 2007 Tokyo Show. You purchased raffle tickets and dropped them in the box beside the quilt you wanted to win. Oh, how I wanted to win one! There were all kinds of basket blocks, traditional, pieced flowers, 3-D flowers, embroidery, animals, hexagons and all kinds of great creative interpretations. This is just a sample and I'll post more soon.

Yesterday, in a moment of insanity, I decided to finally redo the front planting beds at my house (8 ft x 18ft). The contractor had placed rhodies in full sun, where they were baked all summer long. So, 4 yards of potting soil and lots of new plants, the transformation has begun. The rhodies are relocated to a shady spot in the back and the front bed is being prepared for all the new plants. It is wonderful to have strong teenage boys hang out at our house. I knew there was a reason I've been feeding them! They are great dirt movers!! All of this to say...no quilting this weekend at our house. However, I am having significant withdrawls and know I need to return quickly to my sewing room!

Tokyo Quilt Show--Mother's Day Butterfly quilt

Today, I celebrate mother's day remembering my mom's love of butterflies. She passed away in 1998, but whenever my sister, niece and I are together, butterflies seem to appear. This quilt is from the 2007 Tokyo Quilt show, titled "Fairy of Spring" by Keiko Takahaski. I loved the colors and the quilting. The border is very unique...Look carefully at the very wide metallic shimmering border.

Tokyo Quilt Show

I'm sure spring has arrived here in Oregon, as yesterday we had sun, rain and hail all in 15 minutes. It was even raining with the sun out. The flowers are incredible this time of year. I'm still working on the yellow and blue quilt from my last post. Seems to be taking a bit longer than I expected due to all the half triangle blocks that join together. Of course I'm in one of my more perfectionist moods, trying to make it to too perfect, not cutting off any of the triangle points.

In January, I went to the Tokyo Great International Quilt Show. My reason for starting this blog was to share some of the 750 photos that I took. I'm just beginning to sort and organize them for a presentation in June at Mary's River Guild.

So, here are some spring time flower quilts that I adore. In the program books the names of the quilters are in Japanese, as are most of the titles. The first one has incredible beading details. I loved the colors of this second one, that I call Hydrangea.

The third quilt is many small blocks connected with buttons and loops. The cream color is actually the wall and not a part of the quilt. You can see the loops without buttons on the far left side of the quilt. This one had an English title "Garden of Witches". I never found a witch block...sometimes I wonder about the translations.