Last weekend I was at the WI's Denman College near Oxford teaching a sashiko weekend. We had a great time - they learned how to mark and stitch various sashiko patterns, including moyouzashi geometric designs, hitomezashi stitches like komezashi (rice stitch), kamon crests and fan designs like those on vintage furoshiki cloths.
You can read about Denman College
It all looked even more picturesque on Sunday morning, when we woke up to a dusting of snow! This is the main house - a beautiful classical country house, with interior to match.
These are some of the visitor accommodation blocks - the rooms are very comfortable and a new block is being built at the moment, applying the latest environmentally friendly heating technology. Tutors stayed in thatched cottages on the edge of the site. The staff at Denman made everyone very welcome - and kept us well fed too!
Here's some of the students' sashiko samples (above).
We stitched in the "studio", the central workroom in the purpose built teaching block. The room is home to "the Country Wife", a large mural designed by Constance Howard for the Festival of Britain in 1951 - read more about it here http://embroidery.embroiderersguild.com/2002-6/leonard.htm and http://www.nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk/html/country_wife.html
Everyone went away with lots of ideas about how to use their stitched samples and for future projects including their sashiko designs. I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of future work!
1 comment:
WOW
The enjoyment we had shows in the photos.They will be a pleasant reminder of a great weekend.
Maureen and Norma
Post a Comment