Tokyo Quilt Festival 2015

Wednesday the  21st Jan 2015, saw the four of us board a plane with Japan Airlines, for our flight to Tokyo for the international Quilt festival 2015. DH has company this time with my sister in tow as well as an amazing quilter and good friend, Chris Jurd. DH will be sight seeing with my sister for two days, whilst Chris and I attend the quilt festival. Goodbye 38 degrees heat and hello with a winters blast of two degrees in Tokyo. Our flight was 9 hours and  I Was very productive and sewed quite a few diamonds together, on the other hand with Chris stating "she is on holidays, chose to read a book instead of sewing.

My stars.

Thursday, first day of quilt show at Tokyo dome, raining and cold, did not open until 11am, people were starting to line up at 9am, ticket office did not open until 1030am, would have been OK if for not the rain.

The line up of people waiting to enter, the quilt show will cater to a total of 30,000 to 50,000 visitors a day.

Me bracing the weather before entering.

Chris in line, waiting for the ticket office to open.

This years theme was Little house on the Pairie, below a replica of the cottage used by Laura Ingalls, note the crowds.

Even the wagon was a patchwork quilt, with fabric grass, apples and prairie dogs.

Laura Ingalls sewing equipment.

Below is some of the amazing quilts, that caught my attention.

Difficult to identify who made these gorgeous quilts, all in Japanese.

All the birds on this quilt was embroided.

Gorgeous red and white quilt.

Another red and white quilt, a gift made for a 60th.

An overview of the quilt show.

Bye for now.

Christmas and Family

 What a frantic year 2014 has been, Xmas has appeared to creep up on me without me knowing, I have hardly had time to think, prepare or make any gifts for Xmas. My quick recap of my Year from

2013 to the end of 2014. Xmas   2013, I worked at NETS and in the evening celebrated with my family and 2 days later jetted off to Chaing Mai and Hong Kong with the family to celebrate NEW Years eve. 

At the time I thought bring on 2014 and now we are nearly at the end.

Hong Kong Disneyland.

On reflection 2014 has been a very productive year with lots of completed quilts, travel and events.

Febuary saw me complete Lucy Boston, "Patchwork of the Crosses" after 19 months and enter for the first time into a quilt show at Springwood. Quickly followed by completion of Polka Dot girls.

Competed Polka Dot Girls!

"Birds in a basket"

My version of the Anne Levens quilt

1,640 hexagons later, now for the borders.

Our trip to Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Dubai, to celebrate DH 60th, in April and May and June.

June and July was busy with organising our inaugural quilt show.

August, my DH turned 60, we celebrated in style at "Osso's".

September, "Quilts on the Downs had a successful weekend, we raised $1,500 for staffy rescue.

October and November,  DH and I travelled to Texas to have 2 great weeks and again visit the Houston quilt show.

November 29th, my eldest son Nigel got engaged.

December, getting ready for Xmas, and our time away in Toowoomba with family.

What Have I been working on with the lead up to Xmas, a few journal covers for friends and family.

This one was made for DH, his choice of photos.

I also made an appliqued sampler, hand quilted and framed for a dear friend for Xmas.

Have a very Merry Xmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Why not leave a comment for the end  of 2014.

Heather does Dallas.

Our 4 days in Dallas was very busy and filled with lots of sightseeing, this involved getting familiar with the public transport system of Dallas. We chose to stay in a gorgeous B & B, Corinthian House in Dallas. On our arrival at midday Friday, we were greeted by Dan, the owner, who made us feel very welcome and  was also very knowledgeable about bus routes, light rail etc. The bus stop was located one street away from Corinthian House to Downtown Dallas and a short walk from the house. At first I thought the location and choice of accomodation was not a wise choice as we were on foot and had to rely on public transport, but after a few days of using taxi's, buses and trains we became quite familiar with the  public transport system, which was pretty efficient and we became a little more at ease at using  this system around Dallas. Corinthian House was a delight to come back to after a day of sightseeing. Laurel, our host who lives in Corintian House, looked after us very well, and was only to happy to help when needed, we had the most amazing breakfasts. laurel cooked breakfast each morning and breakfast was served in the dining room at 9am.  All the guests staying attended and great conversation was had by all. As well as breakfast, there was always tea, coffee and homebaked  biscuits readily available.

Corinthian House

Our bedroom, Edith Roosevelts room.

Dining room set up for breakfast 

Our gorgeous host " Laurel"

The sitting room.

In the afternoon we went into Downtown Dallas to see the JFK memorial.

We also visited the Holocaust museum and JFK a, 6th floor museum, the later took us 4 hours to get around, a tribute to JFK's life and death. This is were Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from the 6th floor of the book depository.

Entry to the museum.

Elm Place

Elm place, is where the motorcade with JFK was proceeding, when assasinated and this is the view and window from where he was shot.

Saturday saw us travel by train to Dallas Fort Worth, where we spent the day at the stockyards.

Great bar stools at one of the many bars in Fort Worth.

Walk of fame!

Stockyards where the stock is kept.

Stagecoach ride.

Tourist information centre

$5 to sit on the bull and have your photo taken !

The stockyards are a great place to have a steak.

Sunday we visited the Arboretum, the botanical gardens of Dallas.

On display was 12 enclosed pagoda's with the 12 days of Christmas depicted, as well as a pumpkin village display.

  5 Golden rings!

 2 turtle doves!

Eight maids a milking, not all the exhibits were opened.

Enjoy the lovel gardens

DH in the poetry garden

Pumpkin Village

Cinderella carriage.

A wonderful day had by all. OhI forgot to mention Dh made me walk 2 1/2 miles from the Arboretum to Dixie House for dinner....not happy!

Whilst in Dallas I had the opportunity to go to an"yard sale", never say never when you can grab a bargain, all this for $14, never mind the expense of a new suitcase for excess luggage!

Time to get home and plan for our next adventure. Goodbye Texas, been nice visiting.