Hitachi City in Ibaraki, Japan became Tauranga’s sister-city 31 years ago. The cities have since formed a close bond, each hosting many exchanges in arts, culture, education, trade development and tourism promotion.
2019 was Tauranga’s second year taking part in Hitachi’s 15th Friendship Quilt Exhibition. Creative BOP put out the word to quilting groups in the Bay, and were loaned six phenomenal quilts that we sent to Japan to feature in the exhibition. The wonderful quilters from the Bay that took part this year were Jenni Scott, Julie Webster, Karen Livingstone, Sandra Bentley, Lois Parish Evans and Marilyn Muirhead.
Alongside each Tauranga quilt exhibited in Hitachi City Hall was the quilter’s name, the style of quilt, and a message about their work.
Hitachi Hall has informed us they had over 1,000 people through the exhibition over the 5-day period, and that the citizens were enchanted by the Tauranga quilts as they tended to be “bigger and more colourful than the Japanese ones”.
Congratulations to our talented local quilters, and thank you for participating in an international event that puts Tauranga (deservedly) on the World Map.
