Japan - International Quilt Festival

Thirty years ago my daughter had a Japanese exchange student as a roommate for two years at boarding school. Keiko came home with Heidi for every school holiday except for the summer vacation. I became her American mother. During my recent trip to Japan to attend the International Quilt Festival I was able to see Keiko again and meet her daughters.

Keiko calls me her American mother and her daughters, Haruna and Manami, are proud to have an American grandmother. I am equally honored to call them family. 

Here are some of the quilts from the quilt festival. One of the fascinating things about Japanese quilts is the many small pieces that care used to make the quilts. They are all about 6 feet high, good size pieces of fabric art.

Rainbow Swirls

Rainbow Swirls is one of my most popular patterns. I made mine using batiks I had been collecting for some time to make something "special". The pattern uses my 6" Curvy Log Cabin ruler. Pattern and ruler are on my website www.jeanannquilts.com

 Hilary Hastie took my Rainbow Swirls class at Capital Quilts in capitalquilts.com in Gaithersville, Maryland. Hilary chose hues of blue, aqua, and lavender with a white background. She just sent me the photo of her finished quilt. Hilalry hopes to teach the class in June. If you live in the area you can sign up for the class at Capital Quilts and learn to use this fun ruler. Capital Quilts is one of my favorite quilt shops in the metro Washington, D.C. area.

Rainbow Swirls

Hilary's comments about the quilt: "I took this class with you at Capital Quilts a couple of years ago. This is my finished version. I would like to teach this class in June. I hope this will be ok with you. By the way, I just taught another Circle of Nine class, and it went very well."