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Yoko Sugisawa with Eternal Garden                           Hiromi Yokota with Wrapped in Gentleness

Every fall, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, I try to meet and interview as many of the lesser-known award-winning quilt artists as I can. In the past, however, I have been unsuccessful in catching up with the Japanese quilters, who seem to charm everyone--including the judges--with their amazing needlework skills.

As chance would have it, this year my mother and I arrived at the A World of Beauty Award Ceremony too late to sit in the center section as usual, so we sat in the front row of the far-right section instead. Little did I know that this seat selection would offer me the best opportunity for a meeting with this special group of quilters. 

As each Japanese award winner returned to her seat, I made a mental note of where she was sitting. (Luckily, they all sat together!) Toward the end of the ceremony, I leaned over to my mother with a plan. Once the event ended, she would go over to a winning Japanese quilt to see if she could meet the quilter. Meantime, I would move directly to the area where the group sat during the ceremony. Our intention was to meet each winner and to set up a time for an interview later in the week. (Keep in mind that my mother speaks no Japanese, and mine is very limited.) To our good fortune, there was one lady in the group I approached who spoke English. As I chatted with her about a possible interview, who should approach but my mother...with another small group of Japanese ladies!

After much laughing, and with my broken Japanese and many hand signals, we agreed to meet the next day over coffee. My interview was to be with Yoko Sugisawa (winner of the Robert S. Cohan Master Award for Traditional Artistry) and Hiromi Yokota (2nd Place, Merit Quilting, Hand). Their quilt stories brought out much more than I ever expected.---Lilo Bowman

To read more, click here. If you've missed our previous Tour articles, click here for Part 1 and Part 2.