Next Sashiko courses in Edinburgh and Stockton - now booking

Dates now finalised and I'm taking bookings - please e mail me via my website.  The sampler above was made by Jo Maguire on the Edinburgh course. All the info is below. There's something going wrong with the font on part of it - it was cut and pasted from my printed flyer and I can't seem to get the typeface back to the same as the main part of the blog (even in html).

Edinburgh - Saturdays and Sundays - 8 day course over 4 weekends 
10.30 a.m. - 4p.m. at Edinburgh Patchwork

22nd & 23rd September

24th & 25th November

1st & 2nd December

19th & 20th January  

£40 per day, payable per weekend in advance (course deposit £80 covers first weekend). 

Stockton-on-Tees - Saturdays - 8 day course
10.30 a.m. to 4p.m. at All Saint's Church, Hartburn, Stockton-on-Tees, TS19 5EB

15th September

27th October

17th November

8th December

12th January

9th February

9th March

27th April

£40 per day, payable one session in advance (first session payment is your deposit). 

Please book your place by e mail via the contact page on my website.

Materials - as for the previous courses, I have the traditional dark indigo narrow width fabric for sale (£12 per metre - most students use 2 - 3 metres in total) and fine white sashiko thread (£6 per skein), as used by Yuza Sashiko Guild.  You will need to get your fabric in advance, cut it into 9in and 4 1/2in squares and edge it with a zigzag or overlock stitch to stop it fraying while you work but also to identify your squares in class so they don't get mixed up with your neighbour's work. You will need sashiko needles, a marker that works on dark fabric (I recommend the Clover White Marking Pen (fine)), ruler (an ordinary ruler is fine for most sessions), and an A4 and A3 cutting mat (for marking the pattern grids - cheap ones will do fine).

Course schedule - 

You will learn how to stitch numerous hitomezashi (one stitch) and larger sashiko patterns mostly from Yuza town and Shonai district of Yamagata Prefecture, Japan , which is noted for its special sashiko tradition.  Exploring different groups of patterns, you make a series of samples - 9in and 4 1/2in squares, plus some 9in and 41/2in strips - to be combined later into a patchwork sampler.  These patterns have been handed down through generations of stitchers.  This is the only longer course taught with the approval of Yuza Sashiko outside Japan. 

Session 1 - rice stitch variations and woven stitches - small samples – on 4 1/2in squares, with grids directly drawn on the fabrics.

Session 2 - persimmon flower stitch and variations - small samples and long sampler - variations include triple, igeta pattern, infinite - 4 1/2in squares.

Session 3 – hitomezashi patterns in circles, introducing fish scale stitch and diamonds, flower diamond and snowflake pattern - 4 1/2in squares.

Session 4 – marking and stitching corner fans and family crests – on 9in squares, using paper templates for the fans and chaco transfer paper for crests.

Session 5 – larger straight line patterns – raimon (lightning spiral), masuzashi (stacking boxes), asanoha (hemp leaf) and elongated asanoha – 9in squares.

Session 6– larger curved line patterns – shippou (seven treasures), fundou (balance weights), nowaki (grasses in clamshells), seigaiha (ocean wave) and ganzezashi (sea urchin stitch) – 9in squares.

Session 7 – butterflies, grasses and bamboo hitomezashi patterns – 4 1/2in squares.

Session 8 -– assembling your sampler, plus a brief look at some more hitomezashi - coin stitch, paving block, kasuri (ikat) check,ground stitch, cedar stitch, facing butterfly, arrow stitch, abacus stitch. Do this session with any combination of samples made in the previous sessions – 4 1/2in and 9in squares – using 1in sashing.

course content © Susan Briscoe 2013 & 2018

I think I've covered everything.  Any questions, please ask. You can see work done by previous course groups on my blog - click here for a selection of posts.