Fabric from Japan

As promised this post is full of all the yumminess I bought when I was in Japan in April.  I shopped in a variety of places, department store, antique market, vintage fabric store... and am pleased with my haul (although I don't have plans for much of it as yet).

I went to Yuzawaya fabric shop with Carin and bought several lengths of fabric 

plus some ready-quilted AnPan Man fabric to make something for Sam 

I just had to have something with dragons as it is the Year of the Dragon and this piece caught my eye

Considering the temptation presented by this wonderful craft shop - they really do have everything - I think I was remarkably controlled!
Near the Asakusa temple Carin and I visited a small kimono shop (new and used) and I bought this small piece of sakura decorated fabric:

I visited an antique market with Carin and bought this length of shibori fabric

I also went shopping with Julie.  We visited Chicago, an exciting treasure trove of secondhand clothing in one of the poshest streets in Tokyo, Omote-Sandō, with stock ranging from the standard battered jeans and T-shirts to the most exquisite obi.  Julie was looking for used obi for a workshop - hoping to see it soon Julie ;-) while I was looking for fabric and yukata.  Neither of us went away emptyhanded.

 

I bought this lovely, lightweight yukata to wear as a summer dressing gown, I also bought one for DH.

A couple of small textiles, cheap and cheerful tenugui

 and a blossom design Japanese handkerchief, a smart Japanese girl is never with one. 

While we were on the Japanese Textile Study Tour Bryan took us to Rogei
He said he'd allow us ten minutes in the shop full of vintage textiles and with a workshop running making gorgeous dolls.  Had he no idea how we women shop?  Needless to say the ten minutes was extended!!  This is the shop where we were described as the Western Ladies Bomb!  The trip also resulted in an example of a great service in Japan the takkyubin.  Our shopping was boxed up and sent to the Indigo Hotel by courier - no lugging big carrier bags around the city.

A delightful shibori koshi-himo which would have been worn beneath the obi but which I enjoy wearing as a scarf.

A selection of silk pieces that were not expensive because they were everyday.  They are going to become a boro cloth or bojagi, something like this maybe -

I couldn't resist these two pieces of vintage silk.  Just look at the exquisite designs and the stitches and patches that still remain in them, so gorgeous

I was very, very tempted by a boro furoshiki.  It was sashiko stitched, patched and had had a life and some I'd say.  It was so full of stories and character but it was expensive.  I hesitated.  I do regret not buying it.
But then I had sufficient yen remaining for the final shopping spree of the trip, Nat and I shared a kimono length of double-sided stencil printed fabric from the indigo master

Which is a good place to leave this post, with the promise that the next one will be about my visit to Noguchi san's katazome studio.

Japanese Beach Huts?

Here are my beach huts, all finished and ready to hang on the wall of my bach in Norfolk.  Carin - can you spot any of the kimono silk pieces you gave me?  Although the workshop was in Norfolk and beach huts are traditional there I couldn't quite get away from my leanings towards all things Japanese and so my beach huts are all made in Japanese fabrics (and there are pieces of kimono in the sea too).  If they have beach huts in Japan maybe this is how they'd look!
A quick Google led me to these....
http://www.housingjapan.com/real-estate-tokyo/resort-property/chiba-beach-houses/

Three for the Price of One

Three posts in one today as I've been without decent internet access for a while.  All we've been able to get is something that seemed even slower than dial-up.  DH was on the phone with our provider for hours last night and pushing all sorts of buttons and inputting various codes....still no better so I've left him and come to stay with DD and DGS for a few days (not really because of the internet thing but it is much quicker here!!)
So, firstly I finished my kimono fabric postcards and got them sent off:

Thank you for your suggestions, I went for adding a brooch pin to the back of the little kimono and then just attaching it to the postcard with five small stitches, enough to hold it but easy to remove should the recipients want to wear their kimono.
Secondly, a great haul at an antique/secondhand clothing stall at a local fair on Sunday.  These were the treasures I really couldn't resist:  two lovely silk scarves,

 some gorgeous lace hankerchiefs (think I'm having a blue and white phase),

 and finally this gorgeous litte butterfly brooch in purple shiny things (glass I guess!),

Thirdly, I've had a lovely day out at the local farm park with DH, his brother, Terry, who's visiting from NZ, DD and both GSs. 

 These goats would be in trouble in my house!

 Big GS helped Little GS ride on a tractor.

 

Little GS was very good at pushing my wheelchair - until we got to a downhill slope and I nearly rolled into a pen of lambs!

 

We discovered that Sam can climb farm gates!

 After a lot of patience on DD's part Sam finally overcame his fear of this guinea pig and stroked it.  We don't know why he's scared of guinea pigs but not of massive cows, horses and donkeys!

Feeding the ducks with the remains of our picnic.

Tomorrow we're off to Wisteria Patchwork, a quilt shop near Lincoln that I've never visited before...watch this space!

Friday Night Sew-In: Report, July 2011

I'm still sitting all day with my knee splinted so I actually had an All Friday Sew-In apart from a couple of hours out to pick up a wheelchair on loan from the Red Cross and to see my GP about the drama queen fainting fits I keep having (the last one leading to a series of obs inside an Italian ambulance).
I did some more EPP clamshells

and then made a start on my fabric postcards for the latest swap I've signed up for at BQLPC.  The theme is "oriental" so, of course, I headed to Japan for my inspiration.  I've had this lovely pattern for a kimono for a long time, it's by Ursula Riegel at Designs to Share and is called "Monoki".  (clever eh?)  I had to do all the sewing by hand and the kimono will look better with a bit of a press and with a decorative button on the front but I think they're rather neat.

I'm trying to decide whether to attach them permanently to the fabric postcards, or just add them with stitch or two so that they can be removed and used as hanging decorations.  What do you think?  Either way they won't be going through the post naked, I'm popping them into transparent envelopes for safety.
I had a good read through the latest issue of British Patchwork and Quilting and entered their giveaways and then decided to add the gorgeous quilt by Lynne Edwards that is featured on the cover to my to do list.

DH brought me my lunch and then it was time for some more stitching.  He was dispatched to my "atelier" to find my Storm at Sea miniature quilt (do you remember this one from a million years ago?!) and that's what I worked on during the afternoon.  I'm too weary to stitch all evening but I hope you all have a great FNSI, I'll be thinking of you.

Yoshiko Wada Collection on Exhibition

Jenny at Romany Quilting (and in New Zealand) enjoyed a great exhibition of kimono from the collection of world-renown Yoshiko Wada, textile and shibori expert.  There were also some exquisite netsuke on display.  She has shared some photos and a review on her blog which is well worth a look.  Thanks Jenny, I wish I could have been there.

Eye Candy

There are some absolutely fabulous textiles on this site which Glennis posted about on Facebook:

UROBORO

UROBORO (also spelled OUROBOROS,etc…) represents a serpent or a dragon biting its own tail and forming a circle. It appeared in almost all ancient cultures and had been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, and was used to symbolise concepts such as completion, totality and perfection. It can be also seen as a circular never ending process where end meets start. This cyclic motion is typically encountered when collecting antiques. It is a coming and going of objects from the past, situations re-presented, vibrations of déjà vu. Every time such objects changes proprietary, the cycle starts again.

Sit back and enjoy them.  Fortunately all the ones I really love are already sold, phew!!

Friday Night Sew-In Report, September

Well, I've had a Friday Afternoon Sew-In or I suppose I've had a Friday Night Sew-In with anybody who's in Russia, China or Asia.  Please leave me a comment if you are, it would be lovely to know who I was sewing with. 
I wasn't sure I'd make this one and so am feeling very pleased with what I've achieved.  It was good that I had prepared a lot of this project before I got taken ill.
I got very comfortable, in bed, propped with lots of pillows, my bed covered by all my sewing things and some yummy food and drink on the bedside cabinet and then I got going with some fabric postcards.  These are for the current BQLPC swap.

The sashiko stitching was very therapeutic to do, as ever, (although my stitches are not as neat as usual) and cutting out the maple leaves from gorgeously textured and dyed vintage kimono fabric was a delight.  I had to drag myself to the iron to assemble the cards and then, after a nap, it was back to the hand stitching to add the beads and embroidered leaf veins.  I managed to sit at my machine to do the edges and am now feeling very shattered and waiting for my beloved to return from the shop with fish and chips for dinner before I sink into a deep slumber.

Anyone in the BQLPC group will notice that in my enthusiasm to be sewing again I even managed to make too many postcards!  Maybe I'll have to have a little giveaway soon, watch this space.

Thanks for hosting Heidi and here's hoping that while I'm sleeping everybody else will be having a great FNSI - I look forward to reading your reports tomorrow.

Festival of Quilts 2 - My New Kimono

This is the kimono I bought from Susan Briscoe at the Festival of Quilts.  You can see why I was tempted, it is so "my colours".  In fact Susan's entire stand seemed to be draped in the tones of autumn, wonderful golds, oranges and rusts, all shimmery and silky and gorgeous and complemented by Japanese traditional indigo blues.  I'm not sure how I escaped with buying so little actually.

The kimono Susan labelled as,
"1930s meisen silk kimono - may be blended with other fibre"
and I'm more than happy to take her word on that!  I've found two definitions for the fabric/style:

meisen : The "meisen" style silk kimono was the most popular garment at the beginning of the Showa era. It is very different from fancy Furisode or other formal kimono, but this is one of the kimono which people wore everyday at home. The people over 60 years old feel so nostalgic seeing this kimono. The principal characteristic of meisen is its interesting surface decoration made by pre-dyed threads. As the fabric is woven the surface decoration appears as a shimmering, soft-edged pattern. The technique is related to earlier methods kasuri (ikat), in which threads are resisted before dyeing and weaving, and e-gasuri ("picture-ikat"), a Japanese innovation in which threads are resisted, rather than direct-dyed, with the use of a stencil.
Because of the events such as World War I and the Kanto earthquake( 1923 ) there was an intensified demand for silk garments, and as the result, by the beginning of the Showa period, the production and popularity of meisen kimono was at its height. Meisen kimono were affordable, durable, smart attire for everyday wear loved by everyone.  

Meisen fabrics are strong, amazing silks made from the cocoon of the silkworm. Meisen pieces are highly collectible as they were only made from the 1920s -1950s.

This is a length of silk that I could not leave behind.  I am thinking of using it as an obi with this kimono, or with the gold one I bought in Tokyo in May.  I shall have to have a trying on session and get your opinions, but for the moment I am just stroking it and admiring it.  As well as the wonderful colours it has such a great texture, beautiful.