Leominster & Barnsley - talks & workshop photos

As well as getting on with work for "Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags", this week I did two talks, both "Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles", one for Leominster Quilters and the second for Creative Embroiderers Barnsley. I feel like I've been exploring England again - the drive over the A628 through the Peak District (?) to Barnsley was particularly stunning re landscape.

Sandra W sent me a some photos from Leominster - this is me with some of the talk items (above) - thanks for the photo! The large sashiko sampler quilt behind me is from "The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook" and the quilt on my right (over the table) is "Irori". The little piece to my left is my "Japanese Art Quilt - Boromono" (see my post in June re the summer workshops at Gresford).

Liz J was one of our models for some of the vintage clothing - a woman's hanten work jacket (mid C20th) and sunhat (bought in Yuza-machi in 1992). At both talks, thanks very much to our models and our helpers who held up old furoshiki, boromono and more.



Members of Creative Embroiderers Barnsley started some great pieces at the "Sashiko Furoshiki" workshop on Saturday. I took photos of everyone's work - hopefully I've managed to upload them all here!

Furoshiki are Japanese wrapping cloths, but for the workshop there's plenty of creative leeway about the final use of the panel. So you don't have to make a large furoshiki - many typical furoshiki designs lend themselves very well to cushion panels and samplers. This one combines an elaborate double corner fan with karabana (lit. "Chinese flower") kamon (Japanese family crests) and a corner section stitched with fundo (balance or scale weights, also the shape of ingots).
One of the vintage furoshiki in my collection has a very dense corner fan motif with 16 sections, just like this one -

Another old furoshiki has pointed sections in the fan, adapted in a new version here. The red sashiko thread is being used to make two lines of sashiko in the fundo pattern. The kamon (upside down in the photo) has bamboo shoots and snowball, yukimochi sasa, which I used for a bag in my first sashiko book.

A detail of the fan, showing how the ends of sashiko threads are left loose for plaiting later -

Two corner fans, which playfully combine curved "petals" with yabane (arrow feathers). Plus genji guruma (carriage wheel) kamon and a combination of shippou (seven treasures) sashiko pattern with fundo (bottom right).

A large fan on a one metre square furoshiki, with shippou in the top left corner and ume (plum blossom) kamon crest -
Large fan with shippou merging into fundo (top left) and mitsu tomoe (triple comma) kamon. This kamon can be seen on the temple pillars at Mt Haguro.

Fan, fundo and ume -
Amimon (fishing net) on the left, with a fan and tachibana (citrus blossom) kamon. These smaller panels are going to be included in a quilt.

Two panels - rectangular panel on the left merging shippou into fundou, while the one on the right has another elaborate fan.

Mitsu karabana (triple Chinese flower) kamon with another fan variation and fundou worked in red and cream-


A view of the hall and two more panels, Janet's spiky double fan and Lynne's colourful double fan with more than a hint of Art Deco! A fun and relaxing day while exploring lots of variations on vintage Japanese designs. Thanks very much everyone - you produced some great work!