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| Kumiko Funaki, Rising Sun, detail. |
From January 6 through May 1 the New England Quilt Museum played host to 32 quilts from the 12th Quilts Japan, or Quilt Nihon, international competition. These quilts, curated by Pamela Weeks, displayed outstanding technical mastery and brilliant design skills.
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| Kumiko Fumaki, Rising Sun. |
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| Rising Sun, detail. |
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| Admiring a quilt. |
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| One show-stopper after another. |
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| Hiroko Nakagama, Swan Song. |
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| Swan Song, detail. |
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| Kiyomi Shimada, Ebb Tide. |
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| Kimiyo Inoue, Recollection. |
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| Recollection, detail. |
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| Yuko Eguchi, Red and Black. |
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| Red and Black, detail. |
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| Junko Nakatsugawa, Night with a Hazy Moon. |
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| Night with a Hazy Moon, detail. |
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| Miwako Mogami, Towards Space. |
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| Towards Space, detail. |
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| Yukiko Nakao, Flowers in the Night Sky. |
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| Flowers in the Night Sky. |
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| Variations on the medallion quilt theme. |
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| Masae Komori, Looking forward to Spring. |
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| Looking forward to Spring, detail. |
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| Yoko Masuda, Happiness in Full Bloom "Pear Flower". |
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| Happiness in Full Bloom "Pear Flower", detail. |
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| Mineko Inoue, Wild Chrysanthemums in Baskets. |
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| Wild Chrysanthemums in Baskets, detail. |
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| Miki Yakita, My Baltimore Album IV. |
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| My Baltimore Album IV, detail. |
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| Hatsumi Satou, Dandelion. |
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| Dandelion, detail. |
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| Kazue Takao, Lake Surface. |
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| Lake Surface, detail. |
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| Lake Surface, detail. |
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| Harue Konishi, Syo #66 |
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| Syo #66, detail. |
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| Kinue Ishigame, matrix. |
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| matrix, detail. |
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| Jnatsu Kikuchi, Hasagi in Winter II. |
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| Hasagi in Winter II, detail. |
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For the most part I decided to let the quilts speak for themselves. However, a word of explanation for the last quilt - in certain areas of Japan, harvested rice stalks are tied to specially pruned trees, called
hasagi, to facilitate the drying of the rice. Rice is central to Japanese culture, so it seemed right to end my blog post with this quilt image.
