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| Sashiko by Susan Briscoe |
Yesterday my C&G Certificate Class had a great treat as
Susan Briscoe came for the day to teach them how to stitch Sashiko. Sashiko is a Japanese stitching technique,
which I have admired for a long time, but hadn’t actually tried. So rather than quickly teach myself how to
stitch Sashiko to share with the class, I got the expert in. It also meant I spent a very pleasant day
learning a technique I’ve admired for a long time!
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| More examples shared by Susan |
Susan showed us how to mark the fabric with a grid – there is
a definite technique involved - and got us stitching a rice stitch
pattern. This is my first Sashiko piece,
still in progress.
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| My attempt at the Rice Stitch Pattern |
Susan is a wealth of information and experience and
generously shared as much as she could in the space of the day. In the afternoon we progressed to trying a
hemp leaf pattern. Rather than using the
grid to measure the stitch size, it is free stitched. It took a while to get the rhythm going – I can
tell where I started, once you get going, the stitches end up more even.
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| My in-progress hemp leaf pattern |
As well as teaching us how to stitch these patterns, Susan
showed us many examples stitched by her and other people – they were very
inspiring.
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| More examples shared by Susan |
By the end of the day, we had two half stitched patterns,
information on how to stitch other designs and heads filled with enthusiasm and
ideas.
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| Lots of examples hanging on my design wall |
Susan teaches lots of Sashiko workshops - you can find out more about her classes
here.
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| A vintage book that Susan brought along |
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| Sashiko by Susan Briscoe |
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| Sashiko by Susan Briscoe - not just on indigo coloured fabric |
4 comments:
Oh! Be still my heart! If you've seen my latest blog posts, you'll know I've used Sue's book,
"Japanese Taupe Quilts" as the reference for the taupe quilt I am making my son and his bride for their wedding (July) and that I'm doing "sashiko-style" quilting in the whole-cloth blocks within each of the sections. I say "sashiko-style" because I am emulating the technique rather than following it strictly. How wonderful it would have been to participate in that class! I admire her work so much!
It was a wonderful class, Margaret and what was fascinating was the versatility of the stitch and patterns and how you could use it in non-traditional ways, like you are doing.
Hope your quilt gets finished on time.
Lovely photos - I've added a link to your blog post to mine. Beware, sashiko is addictive!
Thanks Susan. I think all of quilting seems to addictive and there are so many techniques to try, just not enough hours in the day!
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