With National Quilting Day, our regular monthly meeting and a sew day at the IQSCM all within a few weeks time, the Lincoln Modern Quilt Guild has been a busy bunch! We have welcomed some new members into the guild which is very exciting for our growing modern quilt community. Saturday was our highest attended sew day yet!
The IQSCM is a beautiful space to be in and sometimes, we get even more lucky and are able to enjoy the wonderful programs going on at the museum. Our sew day happened to coincide with a visit from Japanese quilt artist, Shizuko Kuroha, who's collection of quilts, "Blue Echoes," is being featured at the museum, now through May 25th, 2016.
We were able to watch her demonstrate her sewing tools and techniques.
She showed several different thimbles.
She and her friends showed how they baste a quilt. First, they basted the batting and backing together and then they added the quilt top and basted some more. They used spoons to help the process along!
Everyone gathered close to watch her stitch. We were surprised to find out that she doesn't knot her thread, instead she backstitches a little bit, tracing through the last stitches and then cuts the thread.
Kuroha is an expert on vintage Japanese indigo fabrics and is one of the people credited with popularizing quilting in Japan. She has been collecting antique indigo textiles for a lifetime and now makes reproductions of these fabrics.
Her quilts have complex patterning and very small, intricate piecing. Look at this tiny block!
She designs her quilts by making a detailed drawing.
It was a very interesting demonstration! Wonder what she thinks about our carefree, anything goes, scrappy improv blocks?!
1 comment:
Seeing Shizuko Kuroha was such and honor. She is very inspirational and though she did not speak english you could tell the joy quilting brings to her life. Great sew day and a chance to get to know some of the members.
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