Sunday, November 04, 2012

Tetsu's kind of quilt show

Tetsu took me on another mystery outing yesterday.  To another quilt exhibition.  A mini exhibition.  Let's see, 5 quilts?


The quilts were made by a lady who passed away 10 years ago and her daughter occasionally shows them in memory of her mother.


"May I take pictures?"


"Oh please do!  Take pictures, touch the quilts. check out the backings.  There is a vest or two over there and you can try them on if you'd like!"


As I was taking pictures, Tetsu spent quite a long time talking with the daughter about quilts (and my quilts) and the quilt show that we had gone to last weekend.


Here is Tetsu's view of the two very different quilt exhibitions.

"Last weekend's quilt show left me kind of cold.  Even I could tell that a lot of work had been put into making those quilts and I supposed they were all beautiful, but then to come and be told, 'No touching.  No photographing.'  People come from far away to see the quilts, at least the show people could make you feel welcome, not like we might be there to damage their quilts.  If the quilts are being made for people's viewing enjoyment (Tetsu's assuming no cat would sit on one of those gorgeous quilts last week) then a lot more people would enjoy them if photography was allowed.

Today's quilts were different, but the biggest difference was the atmosphere that they were being shown in.  Someone chatting with people, candy on the table for people to take, the invitation to photograph and touch the quilts.  You could just tell that the people there were just so happy that people would come and be interested in these quilts."


Talking to the daughter we found that she is not a quilter herself but she remembers her mother and her mother's students sitting around quilting together.  Nowadays, unless she holds a showing, the quilts just sit folded in her closet... and so she brings out a few at a time to show and is overjoyed that her mother's work is still being appreciated.


The quilter's name is Kayoko Kasashima  She lived in the Tochigi Prefecture and passed away at age 65.  The last picture was Tetsu's favorite.

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