Keiko Goke's newest line of fabric designs
When visiting the Tokyo Quilt Festival, I'd guess that most quilters alternate between viewing the numerous individual shows and browsing the vendors' booths. Each requires a different type of focus and provides a little break from the other. For international visitors especially, the vendors' area gives a pretty good overview of the current availability of Japanese quilting fabric, although not complete.
Keiko Goke and her two assistants, dressed in her colorful fabrics.
I've written in past years that I make a beeline to two booths when I arrive at the show...Keiko Goke's and Suzuko Koseki's...because they always feature new lines at the show and popular designs/colors sell out quickly. This year was no different. I was there on opening day, first thing in the morning, yet I still missed out on a few I would have liked.
Quilters sometimes tell me that they love Keiko's designs but they can't work with such bold prints. I think they have so much potential and find myself using them more and more in appliqué and piecing, mixed with a variety of other fabrics. When I saw these prints, I immediately envisioned appliqué leaves cut from the centers of the circles. I picked up three colorways.
This striped design was a brand new one and I had already picked up several, mostly for fussy-cutting, when I saw how Keiko had used them, among other bold patterns, as backgound fabric for some several applique quilts. Cabbage Quilts Cathy is a big fan of these KG designs. She's making a Kim McLean quilt using mostly Keiko's fabric. There are always a few quilts in the Tokyo show that use mostly Goke fabric and this year was no different. One, two, three...all so different!
Frankly, I have no idea how I'll use these three, but they came home with me, as well as some yardage of another floral design that is slated for a work apron, like one of her assistant's.
Suzuko Koseki's booth
Suzuko Koseki's booth, La Clochette, was filled with pre-cuts of her new line as well as a good bit of several previous lines. As usual, it was a real free-for-all, with many of her popular text prints flying off the counter faster than her staff could replenish them. She often has new dot and stripe fabrics as a part of each new line and this year, I found them at least as appealing as the text prints.
Koseki mini-stripes
Koseki octagon dots
Although they aren't initially as eye-grabbing as the collage prints, I've already been using these in a couple of projects since I've been home and they're great. To see more of how people use Koseki's prints together and integrated with other fabrics, you'll want to visit the Koseki Flickr site. Lots of things to see there!
Selfish M shop
I usually focus on the designer booths because their fabrics are more commonly available, but there are lots of quirky little booths that are fun to poke around in. This one and a few others featured mostly bright, candy colored fabric, some with glitter, some fluorescent.
This year I consciously steered clear of the many taupe quilt fabric booths and didn't even venture down the vintage indigo/chirimen/aizome aisle. Frankly, I didn't need the temptation.
Canvas bolt cart ~ Yuzawaya
The Quilt Festival offers a vast yet concentrated selection of cottons prints but most of it is pre-cut, aside from the Yuwa booth, which often doesn't carry the designer fabrics if they have a separate booth at the show. So what's a person to do if she wants more then a half meter or so? My suggestion...if you're in Japan, of course...go to Yuzawaya. I have a couple of emails in my inbox right now with inquiries about where to shop for fabric in Japan. I've written about several great fabric stores in past years and you can find these by doing a search here, but my first and strongest recommendation would be to find a Yuzawaya. On successive trips to Japan, I have found their inventory seems to increase each time. They are found in many locations, in my experience, usually near the train station. I've visited at least three...Kichijoji, Kamata and a brand new one in Yokohama...and none disappoint.
Store shopping affords the opportunity to find the fabric gems that don't fall neatly into a quilting category and tend to less likely show up at a quilt booth. Like this little ditsy print...score!
And lest you think that current Japanese cottons only fall into the 'modern' quilting realm, Yuwa has a wonderful group of repro fabrics called 'Live Life Vintage Collection'. I found several last year in a sale bin and then this January was delighted to find a whole section of new bolts...my selection, above.
Except for the bright pieces from Selfish M, all of the yardage above is from Yuwa. Their fabrics are outstanding, with a lovely hand, even after a good wash. If you're looking for some of these prints, I would direct you to online quilt shops Glorious Color, eQuilter and Superbuzzy for random selections of Goke and Koseki prints. (There is a frustration from both shops and artists that for some reason, whole groups never seem to be available at once...something to do with the export middleman.) Shops in Japan are better stocked and increasingly open to international orders. I would suggest La Clochette and the shops linked through Quilt Wonderland. Etsy is another great place to find Japanese fabrics. This particular shop carries many of the recent Koseki text prints and hard to find contemporary Japanese prints. I can personally recommend her service.
**I've finally completed the Flickr set of my 2012 Tokyo Quilt Festival photos. I've really enjoyed reading the comments you've left on the quilt shots and am happy so many of you have enjoyed them.
