In the summer of 2019 I visited the Daruma Yokota thread dyeing factory in Kyoto, Japan. As our wholesale company, Orimono Imports, is a distributor for the brand and our retail shop, Kimonomomo has sold their thread for several years, I was hoping to learn more about the dyeing process and brainstorm some new ideas….
Tag: travel
June 1, 2016 Japan
Hiroshima Taxi drivers polishing their cars while they wait for fares, lace seat covers bright white in the sun. Crows cruise the sky over Hiroshima. It’s a strange sight. Ominous to me, nothing new to the locals. Promenade of Peace is a tree-filled, narrow park between hotels, offices, and a main road. It has a…
May 31, 2016 Japan
Kyoto to Hiroshima Aizenkobo Dye Shop – The dyer Mr. Utsuki is kindly, enjoys teaching, very relaxed and happy to share. He treated me with kindness. His wife said the scarf I picked out was a “firefly” design. Husband said no, no. It’s “beating heart”, 35 year old design. Still new. I like it very…
October 27, 2014 Houston, TX
Houston House Building (Airbnb) – 2014 Houston International Quilt Market At night, looking out over a flat, glittering city. Feeling oddly settled now that I know my way around this part of Houston from walking miles and miles of circles through it every day. Knowing this building isn’t going to crumble in an earthquake is…
End of the Year Updates and News for 2018
There was a time when I could semi-hibernate through December and rest up over the winter to prepare for spring shows and events. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED THIS YEAR. We’re pretty much working full throttle this month, and January looks like more of the same, which is a good thing. Here’s what we have going…
Kogin Institute, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan
I visited the Kogin Institute in Hirosaki on January 31, 2017 after visiting the Tokyo Quilt Festival, Takayama, and Osaka. It was a pleasant flight from Osaka to Hirosaki, with the view of snowy mountains most of the way, and many, many empty seats. My companion Toyo looked around the plane, counted the passengers, and…
Pardon the long absence, it’s been a busy year
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while. In January & February I traveled Japan. More about that coming soon In March we launched our wholesale import business and showed at the San Francisco Quilt Guild Show In April I wrote a bunch, then stopped because there was so much more work to do with the…
Textile Trading in Osaka
Tokyo has the biggest quilt show in Japan, but many of the fabrics in those quilts start out somewhere else. Home to the bulk of the Japanese cotton trade for the past 300 years, Osaka is where next year’s trends are designed and next season’s designs are sold. In 2016 my husband and I decided to…
Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival 2017 part 3
Some photos were taken in a hurry as I rushed from the booth to lunch, or back again. Closeups are all I have of these beautiful quilts. The geometry is complex and amazing. When people who don’t quilt think that quilters are old grannies who sit around making simple blankets, I want to show them…
Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival 2017
The Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival is big. So big they hold it in a baseball stadium. So big it goes on for DAYS AND DAYS, even longer than the Houston Quilt Festival, which seems like forever when I’m working that show. This time I only had to work two days, and I got to sit…
Postcard from Houston International Quilt Market 2016
Wow! What a busy show this year. I’ll keep this short because I’m off to build my booth for Quilt Festival and the preview night is tonight… and I need more coffee. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little window into the show. Some of the quilts in the video are from Japanese…
Travel Notebook Excerpts – Tokyo, Japan – June 2016
I sat in various coffee and tea shops and trains along the way, testing out a portable keyboard I bought in Shinjuku and observing the pace of life as it swirled around me. Here are a few excerpts from my last week in Japan. I hope you enjoy them. June 11 – Shinjuku – Nihonbashi – Meguro Vintage…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 