How to stitch urokozashi (me on youtube)

While finding the link for the Yuza sashiko video for my previous post, I spotted the RUCraft video of me stitching urokozashi (fish scale stitch). Very nicely edited together IMHO. Click here to watch (I've worked out how to put the video onto the blog, in the next post, but not how to add any text with it).

We shot the whole sequence twice, including a closeup set of my sewing, so you can see what is going on with the stitching. There are also some nice shots of "The Denman Kannon" sashiko panel (the work in progress on that piece is documented from September 2008 to August 2009 on this blog, please use the search box and "kannon" to find references to it, plus photos).

Shonai sashiko stitches like urokozashi are easier to stitch than they look. I like the way that this stitch, and related patterns like hishizashi (diamond sashiko), can be used to bend around a shape as well as in more traditional straight lines. Reiko Domon's work has shown alot of innovative possibilities for playing around with these stitches. Here is a detail of her Gaudi quilt -