I ♥ Suzuko Koseki

I had such a lovely day yesterday, thank you for  all the good wishes and some great comments on the giveaway-click here if you want to enter.  One of my best presents was from Damian a great big pile of fabric, from Japan and most of it designed by Suzuko Koseki.  First peak...

A little mini pack of red prints, I can't quite put into words how much I like these fabrics.  I bought Machine Made Patchworks- also known as Patchwork Style a couple of years ago, the original non translation version and I was enraptured by it.  I had never seen fabrics with text, I had no idea where to get them or who had designed them, I didn't even know the book and the fabrics were by the Suzuko Koseki as all the text was in Japanese.  I had just got into sewing again with Clothkits and Gossypium and any text I found on fabric kits or labels I saved so I could create my own text fabric.  I searched ebay and found a few odd fabric panels from America of repro food packages and signs but not the real thing.  I knew there was more out there but I didn't know where to look... break for another set of pictures.

Close up on a fav...

Gradually on blogs like True Up I picked up more info, the name Suzuko Koseki and recognised the prints but only found the odd one at Sew mama Sew or Purl Soho and never what I really wanted.  Eventually, through Ayumi at Pink Penguin I found a Japanese shop with a fantastic range, Cotton Garden and with translation tools, the patience of the shop owner and Ayumi checking my email translations, plus a tortuous set of attempts paying by credit card and my bank getting all worried about Japanese transactions in the middle of the night- we succeeded.  I have had to wait a few months to see them, but wow, they were worth it.   Text, labels, kitchen images, squares, grids, lines,vintage style prints- my mum was perplexed by the misspelt words- these are the fabrics of my dreams!  If I could have fabric shop stocking these prints, I would be utterly content.

I felt I hadn't spent enough time with these fabrics yesterday- it was a hectic day.  I wanted to sit, look and touch them in their neat folded piles.  I would have quite happily laid down naked and covered my body in the little folded stacks whilst Damian took pictures- he was game- but do you know there wasn't time!
I have been trying out some print combos together as you can see in the pics, but all in all they render me speechless x

I have just added a flickr group I ♥ Suzuko Koseki- are you a fan?  Come and join...