Suzuko Koseki Love

I thought I would share with you my love for Suzuko Koseki
today. You may not have heard of her name, but she is a
designer of really cool fabrics and an author of several
patchwork books. Her popularity grew exponentially overseas
so that now we can find her books in English including
Patchwork Style, Playful Patchwork, and Natural Patchwork,
of which the last two available for pre-order on Amazon.




Since her fabrics have become more and more available
outside Japan, you may own some of her fabrics without
knowing they are designed by her, which happened to
me at first. Until later I never associated my favorite
stashes with Suzuko Koseki who happened to be the
author of some of my favorite sewing books.




I love her fabrics/designs so much that there aren't
very many things I've sewn without her fabrics.
When I am stuck at picking perfect fabrics for my
patchwork projects, Suzuko's fabrics are often my
solution and when I need inspiration, Suzuko's books
are the first ones in my hands. I am always on the
lookout for her new fabrics and projects (which are
often featured in Japanese quilt magazines) because
they are one of the best sources of inspiration for me.




Anyways, the reason I decided to talk about Suzuko
today is that I came up with a fun idea yesterday
morning. Too much coffee without any breakfast helped
me feel valiant to start something new and exciting.




So I will be visiting Japan after Christmas until
the beginning of February, which means I am over there
when Tokyo Quilt Festival is held at Tokyo Dome.
There is no way would I miss the chance to go there.
And I will probably be able to meet Suzuko Koseki
in person for the first time there! I am so excited about
this already. I can't wait to tell her how much
inspiration she has given for me through her fabrics/books.




My fun idea is.. to make some gifts for her, not just
on my own but with other folks who are also big fans
of Suzuko. Each of us will make a coaster measuring 4.5"
x 4.5" that features one of the letters in her name.
For example, I would make a "S" coaster and, say, Kerry
would make a "U" coaster. In the end I will have twelve
coasters, each of them made by different folks.
It's a very simple, quick project. Basically, once I know
who will be in this project, I will assign each member
a letter so that she can go ahead and start making a
coaster that has the letter in some ways. The letter might
be expressed in patchwork, applique, embroidery,
stamps, or printing, etc. The designs and fabrics used
are totally up to everyone, but I think it would be great
to use Suzuko's fabrics or reflect on her designs in her books.




I would like each member to send the coaster to my home in
Japan by January 15th in 2011 so that I can put them all
together and hand them to Suzuko in person at the quilt
festival. I am also thinking about including an introduction
of each contributor in Japanese so that she'll have a
chance to know a bit about her fans overseas.
Doesn't it sound kinda fun?!




So far I have 10 confirmed members for this but I think
it would be perfectly fine to have many more members!
Instead of 12 coasters that make up SUZUKO KOSEKI,
we could do "WE ♥　SUZUKO KOSEKI" by 15 of us or
possibly something longer if there are many more of us.

All the fabrics I photographed for this blog post
are Suzuko's fabrics. You can google her name to
search more fabrics designed by her. If you aren't
sure if any of your fabrics are Suzuko's or not,
feel free to send me an e-mail to ask me about them.

It's really not necessary to be a huge fan of her
to join the group. In fact, it would be totally fine
to join even if you just learned about Suzuko today
and realized that you've got some of her fabrics in
your stash. As long as you 1) like her fabrics/designs/books,
2) are able to make a coaster to be sent by Jan 15,
and 3) are interested in being a part of this :),
you are invited!! If you are interested, please
let me know (via email) by the end of this week so
that I can start assigning a letter for everyone
next week. I hope you'll decide to join :)
Even if you decide not to participate in this,
I will keep you posted on the project here in my blog,
so I hope you'll enjoy seeing everyone's coasters.

Oh and if you've made something with her fabrics
or from her books and have a flickr account,
you might be interested in adding your photos to
this flickr group called I ♥ Suzuko Koseki :)

Ok, I think I talked too much today.
Thank you for reading such a long post..!
Have a great day!