This is the first of a 3- part blog post about my trip to Kyoto. Last fall I started getting mysterious messages on Facebook from someone in Japan who I had never met. Eventually these messages were inviting me to show my artwork at the Kyoto Quilt Festival, which I had never attended. Fortunately, due to my many years of attending the Tokyo Quilt Festival, I was able to find a mutual friend to communicate with the show organizer Reiko to translate the messages. I didn’t want to presume….but I must admit I was delighted when I could eventually accept the official invitation…..and received the event flier listing me as…

Having recently returned from the Kyoto Quilt Festival, I wanted to share some of this experience with you.  But also I’d like to share the context of this event. During the early 1980s when I lived in Hong Kong working as a fashion designer, I often went to Osaka to source textiles. I did not have a chance for sightseeing, and mostly experienced a male-centered industry in smoke-filled offices. Starting in 2008, I started to travel to Japan again, to attend the Tokyo Quilt Festival. Honestly, it became an obsession, and I saved up my Star Alliance points all year to get a ticket to Tokyo. Eventually there was a…