Sashiko Summer School in Scotland, 2019 - A Celtic/Pictish Sashiko Sampler

Summer sashiko school at Eassie Community Hall, near Glamis, summer 2019 - time for me to finalise the dates!  I have been really busy with work on The Ultimate Kogin Collection (due to be published in June) so I've been a bit quiet for a while!

Any of these blocks of dates is OK for the room I want plus use of the kitchen.

8th - 11th July (Monday to Thursday)
9th - 12th July (Tuesday to Friday)
10th - 13th July (Wednesday to Saturday)
11th - 14th July (Thursday to Sunday)

23rd - 26th July (Tuesday to Friday)
24th - 27th July (Wednesday to Saturday)
25th - 28th July (Thursday to Sunday)

19th - 22nd August (Monday to Thursday)
20 - 23rd August (Tuesday to Friday)

The hall booking secretary has mentioned that the local kids will be having a PE session in the main hall every week in August (actual day hasn't been set yet), and also that there's a Pilates class on Wednesdays (main hall). Neither use the kitchen. I can't have a weekend in August because they do teas on the Sundays and need the room both Saturday and Sunday.

I am booking the Strathview Room and use of the kitchen rather than the main hall. It looks like a really nice, well lit space. We will have the room from early evening on the first day through to 1pm on the last day.

The theme is going to be 'A Celtic/Pictish Sashiko Sampler', and I am going to be showing students how to draw some knotwork, spiral and fretwork designs from the Celtic/Pictish traditions (drawing inspiration from early Celtic art through to later knotwork), plus using some traditional Japanese patterns that fit well with Celtic designs (such as sayagata). There will be designs drawn straight onto the fabric with grids and also patterns transferred with chaco paper. I started looking at Celtic designs again last year after going to The Celts exhibition at the National Museum. You can incorporate your own Celtic/Pictish designs - I want to have some Z-rods and Pictish crescent designs in my sampler!

There are a lot of standing stones with Pictish carvings in this area. On the first day, I'm going to start the course with a visit to the Pictish stones museum at Miegle and I'm hoping one evening we will have a drive out to see the Aberlemno stones too (it would be great if we could do this on the second evening).

Before I finalise the dates, I wanted to run this past potential students, in case anyone reading this would like to attend. We will have use of the room from the start of the course right through to the end (i.e. we can leave our work there overnight). The cost for the course is £140 (to include your museum admission). I'll provide teas and coffees, and you can bring your own lunches etc. Eassie is not far from Forfar or Coupar Angus, so plenty of places to stay. Coupar Angus has the Red House hotel, where Yuza Sashiko Guild stayed, and it seems good. There are also places to stay around Glamis.

Let me know if you are interested and which dates would be preferable. I need to choose dates in the next couple of days. I need to sort out flyers asap, as I'd like to sell the course when I'm down at the Newark show towards the end of the month.

The first photo is of one of the Aberlemno stones - a composite photo because I couldn't fit it all into one shot! - and the second one is a stone cross in Aberlemno churchyard (I'm currently drawing up the circle swirls pattern from the centre and will be stitching it in sashiko in the next few days).