Lectures Page

Go back in time, to a fascinating point in Japan’s history when cotton & indigo – two epic plants – forever changed Japan’s textile world. Meet the masters who are preserving the old traditions of indigo dyeing and meet the quilters who have dedicated their quiltmaking to working with antique cotton. Learn the stories behind traditional cotton textiles such as kasuri, katazome and kimono cloth and how a handful of Japanese weavers are continuing these traditions into the 21^st century. Go inside Japan’s esteemed textile printing mills and hear why the finest quilting cotton in the world is currently printed in Japan.

Meet the Next Gen of Japanese quilt artists. Japan’s history and cultural norms set very clear rules for who is and who is not considered a Master and this lecture will explain why, and how, that happens. But in the Japan 2.0 universe, there is a community of quilters for the 21st century who are operating outside the rigid cultural lines of the traditional Master/Student relationship. They are creating original, modern quilts with a global eye while still managing to reference the Japanese aesthetic.

Quilters are voracious consumers of 100% cotton fabric and American Cotton shares the story of the American cotton farmer and American textile mills and their connection to quilting cotton over the past 100 years. Meet the farmers who grow the world’s most trusted cotton. Discover the quaint fabric shopping options for quilters in the early 1900s and see their antique quilts. Meet the few intrepid individuals and companies who are bringing back cotton fabric that is both grown, and manufactured, in the U.S.