Sashiko Design for the Quilt Guild Challenge

Several years ago I started a sashiko embroidery piece in a class with Sylvia Pippen.  Like a lot of my sewing, it got put away half-finished to be discovered at a far distant time.

I came across it and decided to finish it, as there wasn't very much more to do on it.  And as I was working on it, I realized that the pretty blue mottled fabric (in the center below) was very similar in color to our guild's challenge fabric for this year (the outer fabric below).

 I decided to frame it with the challenge fabric and finish up the wall hanging.  Dear Daughter-in-law-Stitches was visiting us, and since she has such a good artistic eye, I got her input on my borders.  We agreed that a thin white border and slightly bigger black border would work well inside the blue fabric.  The white brings out the white stitches, and the black helps "tame down" the brightness a bit.

This photo shows the fabric auditioning process.  

So I made the strip sets and sewed them onto the wall hanging to make a mitered border.

Here it's all laid out with the borders sewn on, ready to be mitered.

You can see a little bit of the diagonal line I drew to mark the 45 degree line, and then I added pins to stabilize it while I stitched it.

The front is finished!!  I did very minimal stitching on this, with a solid line 1/4" inside the white border, and some wavy stitching (#4 on the Bernina) in the outer blue border.  I may return to it and use blue thread to make a hand-quilted circle just outside the white embroidered circle.

Here it is all put together.  I debated about blue or black for the binding, but chose black to make a good stopping point for the eyes.  Now it is all ready!  I even have the label and hanging sleeve sewn on!!

Asilomar with SisterStitches

I just returned from almost a week at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. I've been there before, and they have some truly awesome classes.  It is really a wonderful experience.  But this time it was even better because SisterStitches came with me! 

Doesn't she look relaxed sitting on the deck of our room!?!  We had a great time together, and we each chose the same class, too.  We were in Sylvia Pippen's class on Japanese sashiko and appliqué.  Check out Sylvia's website because there are fabulous pictures there.  She does incredible work.  And Sylvia is also a great teacher.  Lots of fun, fairly laid back, and really good at instruction.

Here is my work in progress.  I need to make some more flowers to applique, but you get the idea.  I already have the water pieces appliqued onto the backing fabric (which is a dark blue Moda marble).  The white lines are where I will do sashiko stitching.  The idea is plumeria flowers floating down a stream.  I'll let you see more of it as I progress in my work.

SisterStitches chose to work on two different designs.  (She's an over-achiever!)  The one above is very pretty appliqued waves, and you can see that she has started her sashiko stitching.

This pretty moon (or sun) belongs to SisterStitches, too.  She has begun her stitching on the waves, which will build up and splash in front of the setting sun (or rising moon).

While we've both done applique and embroidery before, neither of us had tried sashiko (although I've always wanted to and have had the materials for quite a few years now!).  The sashiko stitching is different from regular embroidery, as the stitches are larger, and each stitch has a space between it and the next.  You can see that a little bit in my practice piece below.

And here is one of the many deer that were around the Asilomar grounds.  They are actually quite used to people being around, so they don't scare very easily.  I still wouldn't want to get too close, though!

Isn't he sweet-looking!?!