Lynette Anderson Designs

Look who arrived in Tokyo..

Vince and Emma's mum, Lyn arrived late on thursday night. I wanted them both to see the wonderful quilts in the show and some of Tokyo. It was nice to have some extra help on the booth and the extra hands to pack up tonight will be lovely.

Now for a couple of quilts, everytime I go to stretch my legs I find another quilt that takes my eye. This one is exceptional, the amount of applique unbelievable. 

The blocks are about 10" squares and just look at the tiny needleturn applique not to mention the pieceing!

Here are some close ups of the border detail. The whilte dots are French knots that have been done using a fairly thick creamy white thread. These knots are used on quite alot of pieces and I like the texture they add, think I need to get some of this thread. You may see some of these knots appearing on my work sometime soon!

Sorry this one is a bit blurry, there was a breeze and I didnt realise the quilt  must have moved when I took the picture until I loaded the pictures here. The blocks are approx. 4".

This morning Vince and I are heading to the fish market and for some sort of fishy lunch and a walk in the Imperial Palace Gardens. Hopefully its not too cold outside, if it is then we will walk fast!

Amazing quilts....

This huge quilt uses batik fabrics, I love the colours in this quilt, the ladies all look so happy.

All these flowers are beautifully appliqued and embroidered.

Mary Ceasar is our neighbour two booths down, she lives in Hawaii and does the most lovely Hawaiian quilting. I met her briefly last year and she has been vey sweet giving us help with getting ready to come to Tokyo.

Mary does workshops around the world and told me she was recently in the UK teaching,

I am not sure how this quilt was created but its wonderful, it looks as if its been painted in some places and then layers of fabric that have then been covered with tulle and something sparkly which my Mum would love as she loves all glitzy things.

Hope you have enjoyed the quilts from today, stay tuned for tomorrow x x

bye for now

Large peony like snowflakes - 大きな牡丹の雪

I forgot to show you the snow pictures, it snowed here in Tokyo city on tuesday night which was very exciting as for Emma it was the first time she had seen snow. The snow flakes were huge just like flower petals, they were huge and fell slowly in Japanese this type of snowflake is called - Okina botan no yuki.

Early the next morning there were workmen everywhere clearing the snow from the footpaths and the rooves.

It was nice to get back inside the Dome out of the cold to view more of the quilts. This quilt of life in a village caught my eye, the pieces are so tiny and so neatly appliqued.

I love all the little scenes

 these chickens are so real, each one has a differnet pose, this quilter has captured the essense of real chickens in tiny pieces of fabric!

Day 5 -Tokyo Quilt Show

We have been so busy which is wonderful but boy do my feet ache! Yesterday was day 5, still 4 more days to go! In this picture you can see the crowd looking in but can just see me under the table? I promise I was not hiding or sleeping but searching for a pattern for a customer!

After a very hectic morning I left Emma and Nireko in charge and headed out for a much needed toilet break and to get us a nice hot cup of coffee.

This is one of my favourite quilts in the show.

The applique is so perfect and the details are amazing, the more you look at it the more you can see. The handquilting is also superb.

Emma and I are also total inspired by this gorgeous quilt, its so unusual, each decorated patchwork circle is held together with sashing that is crochet!! 

Here is a close up so you can see how amazing this is, I never would have thought this would work as an idea but I love it. Maybe I need to take some crochet classes as I love the combination of textures in this quilt.

Well, its time to prepare for another day. I forgot to tell you that it snowed yesterday and it was the first time for Emma to see snow which was very exciting!

bye for now 

Alice in Wonderland....

Hi... It's Emma here. One of my good friends loves everything to do with Alice in Wonderland and I was so excited when I saw what the special feature project was for this years Tokyo quilt show. "The World of the Fantasy" by Reiko Washizawa. As you can imagine I have taken lots of pictures to show my friend and I thought I would share a few with you.

All the displays are just gorgeous... and there are so many different things to look at. Every time I looked I saw something new.

There are even the cards painting the roses red. The fabric roses were beautiful.

Everything on the table is made from fabric...right down to the tea cups and the cakes.

More yummy looking things made from fabric.

Can you see that the Mad Hatter's flute is made from cotton reels?

oh and how cute are these little guys...

Now I'm off for day 3 of the show.

Emma x

First Day...

Ready for the crowd...

Quilt Shoppe Pillow which I have re made using fabrics from my Secret Garden collection and  The Potting Shed, I love redwork stitchery and this journal cover and pencil case are nice as you can use them everyday.

Our view of the crowd around the booth, the ladies were a bit shy at first as for many it was the first time they had seem my work but after a while the sales started to come....phew!

Later in the afternoon I took a detour back from the restroom to my booth and took some photos of the displays, this one caught my eye. Its by Kathy Nakajima.

Well, its time for Emma and I start our day with a good breakfast before heading across the walkway to TokyoDome for day two...

Setting up...

Its always such a relief to discover that our boxes are ready and waiting for us in the booth space! First job is to open them all...

Second job is to flat pack the boxes so they dont fill up all the space! We need to keep some of them for returning stock home at the end of the show..unless we sell out of course!

Our neighbours Joe and Mary Koval who are always so generous in lending step ladders, storage space etc  Marytook time to show me some fabrics from her new redwork collection, they are really lovely.

Finally we are all set up and ready for the big day tomorrow.

The theme for this years collaborative quilts is 'Squares and Triangles are Fun', there were a few of these quilts near us so I snapped some quick pictures. I will find out more about these quilts and how you can submit a block etc later in the week.

 

We ended what had been a very long day with a wonderful meal. I chose a rather nice dish of prawns and mushrooms on rice that had been cooked in milk it came with a bowl of Miso soup, it was all delicious ( I even managed to use my chopsticks) .

Visiting Yoko Saito..

An early morning coffee and donut at Starbucks yesterday with Nireko before we headed for the JR line (train) to visit Yoko Saito's Quilt Shop.

After a short train ride we arrived at Yoko Saito's store here in Tokyo.

Yoko popped out from her classroom filled with eager students for a quick hug and so we could have a photo together. Yoko was very proud to show me her new book which had just arrived in the store that morning.

We spent a while browsing the fabrics and other treasures (yes, we all came out with a bag of goodies). On the way back to the train we spotted this shop window filled with origami cranes of all sizes.

Today we set up our booth, I will try to take some photos for you x x 

Arrived in Tokyo...

I hate to be late and so we arrived at the airport with plenty of time on our hands and since it was early morning we were both a bit hungry, imagine our delight when we found this magical machine to make ourselves some pancakes.

In 2 mins I had two pancakes and they tasted nice....maybe I need one of these fun machines instead of a toaster.

Here we are about to board our plane to Tokyo....in 9 hours time we will land.

This was the view from our hotel room window this morning, clear and cold....

Sorry about the colouring in this photo but I took it on my phone, this store sold crepes. The fillings were savoury or sweet and certainly seemed popular with the locals. The window display showed all the filling options...right down to fried egg with a sausage!

I had forgotten that the resturants have these plates of food (faux food) so you can see and choose which meal you would like. The plates of faux food are works of art, I wonder what the job description would be for a faux food stylist. 

Here is another window filled with faux cuisine art....it looks so real!

We fell in love with this shop, a clothing and accesories store just for dogs....Hugo would love a jacket like this so he could look like a big bee....zzzzzzz

bye for now

My new book...

The excitement when MrFedex arrives here at the office is ......embaressing! Anyhow once the poor man has left we love to rip open the package to see what goodies have arrived. I am so excited as I can finally show you the front cover of my next book, due to arrive in quilt shops around the world sometime early this year.

It takes a long time from making the projects, writing the insturctions to getting 'the book' to hold, but well worth the wait. This book even though I say so myself has turned out beautifully, the pictures and page layout is just lovely. There are lots of sweet new projects including quilts, needlecases, bags purses and covered sewing carry cases (pictured).

So many of you enjoyed my first button club quilt 'My Garden' and wanting more people to be able to enjoy making the quilt I have included the pattern for it in this book.

There are a few places taking pre-orders for the book, please ask your local quilt shop first as I am sure they will be happy to order a copy in for you. If your coming to one of my workshops later in the year and you buy a copy from the store thats holding my class I will be more than happy to personalise a copy for you.

If your eager to reserve your copy then you can check here and here.