I took a class at the guild meeting last month on Sashiko. It is an ancient Japanese "art" of mending/quilting from what I learned. It was not as easy as one might imagine. The stitches should all be the same size with equal spacing. Also the gal who taught it told us that the traditional way was not using knots as thread was not easily acquired and often reused!! When you change direction you also leave a small loop.

Here is my first attempt :-) :-) The back shows my novice attempt at no knots and "small loops". I really enjoyed it - I might try it again - Nice thing is you use no hoops!

Here is a link to a better discription I found on the web.

http://www.purlbee.com/sashiko-tutorial/

It looks great to me. What a lot of work though, I think I'll just stick to machine quilting.LOL

ooooooooooooo gorgeous. i watched it done with georia bonesteel. she said each stitch is suppose to resemble rice? it looked to hard for me, but sure is pretty

Beautiful.

I love Sashiko!! You are doing great!

Gorgeous! I've been wanting to try Sashiko. My buddy youme is sending me a sampler to try!

I had never heard of shashiko before. That is absolutely fascinatiing! Reading about the history of the technique was really interesting. It's great that techniques like this live on, even though we don't really need them for survival. (And I am so glad I don't have to re-use thread - life is good).

Renee

It's so beautiful. My Japanese DIL has gotten me interested in it as well.

I bought a "kit" at the Long Beach Show but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I would have loved to have taken your class. It sounds like there is more to it than I thought initially.

I'll have to find a website with some more tips. Thanks for posting it and reminding me of yet another project that I want to get to soon.

That looks great!

That is absolutely gorgeous!

Wonderful!! :D You have done a
terrific job on your project. I just
watched a program on TV, demon-
strating how to do this. It looks like
fun to do. Thank you for sharing.
:D :D :D :D

Thanks all for the kind replies.

It was really not too bad once I got the hang of it. Matter of fact - I actually did a lot of it in the car going to Maine last week. Also - since there are no knots - :oops: :oops: it was easy to undo uneven stitches (there were actually many that were redone). The other thing is that you do it without a hoop - The gal that did the class said that when you do it correctly you actually hold the needle still and move the fabric. I eventually got to understand why - The straight lines were straighter and it was easier to judge the stitch length!

Joan - You should start it - It was really not too bad and kind of neat being so different. The only thing that I found in the pre-printed pattern I used was that it was not the same length horizontally and vertically and at the beginning I tried to "squeeze" in the same number of stitches each direction. Also I finally decided that the "centers" of the motif needed to have the same length stitches. I would be tempted to purchase a book and try another design not pre-printed.

Best of luck - when you are done I hope you will post it

Wow... that looks stunning! I love the pattern.

Thanks - I too really liked the pattern - very geometric!

wow---that is really wonderful!!

Love your work. I love it when old traditions are passed on and people keep these alive for our kids, and kids, kids :)
You did a great job on this.

I took a class, too. Here's my effort....

Wow! Beautiful, hulahoop!!
Yup Chele, I got you some WILD colored threads for you! And two samplers!!

That is so beautiful and yet simple. Do you use quilting thread or something heavier?

Ooh love that sampler block. I tried my hand at a little block when I first started quilting we were informed that each stitch should be the size of a grain of rice & equal on the right & wrong side of the fabric !!!!
I bought 2 of the blocks you have done at the quilt show I went to in August, the completed ones that were on display by the vendor were given a 3inch rust coloured border. I have to say they looked stunning.

I may keep these for when I retire in 20yrs time LOL.

Tisha

Hulahoop, your sampler is beautiful!

Thanks Eparys for the link to the tutorial. It looks most helpful for a
beginner like me!

That's beautiful!
There's no way I could do that!

OH hulahoop that is absolutely stunning - What a beautiful piece of work!! How big are the blocks?

That is so pretty!!! Good Job!!! :D :D :D

The finished blocks are 9 inches square. It was fun to do, but hard on the fingers!

Wow! Never heard of this. Looks complicated and challenging.

That is beautiful. I think you did a great job.

Looks beautiful. I have seen some really gorgeous quilts with Shashiko, had a gal (can't remember her name) from Hawaii that teaches it speak at our guild last spring. Someday I may want to try that technique

Very nicely done. I would like to try this, as I too saw a demonstration on TV (may be Simply Quilts?). Anyway, loved your examples. I believe the needle used is quite long? Thanks for the pics.

:lol: Thanks for sharing....I saw some book about sashiko in one of the stores last year and I was wondering....?? Ok so may be next time the book will travel home with me.... :lol:

that is absoutely lovely. i like the white thread on blue. a friend of mine in Japan sent me a kit but it was white fabric with dark blue thread. I haven't used it yet.