Back to the blog!

As it has been for everyone, life has been quite frantic and strange for the last few months. Now I have a bit more time to sort out the photos properly, it is time for me to revive my blog. You can still follow my artist page on Facebook and my photos on Instagram of course, but it is always easier to find things retrospectively on my blog - which I will explain later on.  We were at Nagoya castle back in January when we first heard about the 'new illness' in Wuhan, so traveled back to the UK wearing masks... and having no idea of how things would change so suddenly.

At the beginning of March, Yuza Sashiko Guild, along with Reiko sensei's sister and brother in law, came to Scotland for a trip that included teaching and exhibiting at the Scottish Quilting Show at SEC Glasgow and again at Dornoch Fibre Fest, near Inverness. We managed to pack in visits to Edinburgh Castle, the Kelvingrove Museum at Glasgow, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's House for an Art Lover, Stonehaven and Dunottar Castle (just the outside), Tomatin Distillery and Urqhart castle as well. Quite a trip!

Reiko sensei taking photos of my antique boro display at SEC, where we shared the exhibition space.

Yuza Sashiko also launched their first book in English in the UK during the tour (I have copies for sale online).

After we waved them off at Edinburgh airport on 16th March, things started to change here very quickly and the UK went into lockdown on 23rd March. Things are still not back to normal and they are not likely to be for a long time.

As a result of the precautions we are all having to take now due to COVID-19, all my face-to-face teaching and all our shows have been cancelled - all the quilt shows, and all the World Textile Days. This has changed life for me a great deal, as I was used to traveling a lot! Fortunately I set up my online store last summer, so getting geared up to sell 100% online hasn't been as hard as it might have been. At the start of lockdown, I made sure I got plenty of threads and materials in stock. At that time, I was concerned about shipping from Japan. I mostly use FedEx, but some of the places I buy from use Japan Post, which has suspended all the economy shipping services. The 370m fine sashiko threads are shipped by Japan Post, which took quite a lot longer, even for the express post, so I made sure I ordered the complete range this time!

I have started an online newsletter (you can sign up here) and have been coming up with new products and new combinations of products (like these kogin thread sets, themed after seasonal colours).

I've also got the stencil and pattern booklet pack I designed for Today's Quilter in stock, along with many other new things, including my latest preprinted sashiko panels for Olympus Thread Mfg. Co. (Japan), some fabulous new designer hanafukin sashiko panels and lots of new hitomezashi kits and panels too.

I have been busiest during lockdown stitching boro...

My next book, The Book of Boro, will be published by David and Charles on 10th November 2020.

It has 20 projects, large and small, inspired by items from my personal boro collection (I've been collecting for nearly 30 years now, which I find hard to believe!), plus all the techniques you need and, of course, a history section about where boro comes from, how it was made, the boro revival and more.  I will be taking advance orders towards the end of the summer.

Now that the first and second pages edit are done and I only have the proof to check (when it arrives), I've returned to sashiko. I am just starting on a sashiko sampler stitch along, and will be posting instructions and photos here, as well as on Facebook and Instagram, very soon. It will be free and there is no need to sign up to anything - just get your sashiko supplies together and join in, at your own pace. The idea for the sampler is to use my preprinted sashiko panels, but if you have The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook and Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match, you could mark up your own panels instead. Hopefully I'll get one of the sampler quilt tops completely finished before starting the stitch along. It will be free to join in and you will be able to follow it here or on Facebook, where you can join my sashiko group, The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook (named after my book), to share photos and chat with other stitchers. I also want to do some short video tutorials, which will be on YouTube. Keep checking here for stitch along posts!

A sashiko cushion with vintage buttons

 

Morag René posted a photo of this gorgeous sashiko cushion in the UK Quilters United Facebook page a few minutes ago, and said I could show it off here too.  Love the button details on the back and the red sashing.  She wrote -

My first Sashiko cushion cover finished, 20"" square overall. Managed to find "vintage " buttons which I thought had a vaguely Japanese feel, in the large tin I inherited from my mum. MANY thanks to Susan Briscoe for the designs and guidance in her wonderful book. I really enjoyed learning & stitching.

Fabrics and threads are by Olympus.

Today's Quilter sashiko special supplement - sneak peek!

I've had a look at the pdf files for the sashiko supplement, due out on August 18th, and it is looking really good.  There are three complete projects - Koi scroll, Marumon (framed below) and Ranru.

All three projects were featured in 'Japanese Sashiko Inspirations', which is currently out of print, so it's a good chance to get your hands on these patterns.  Ranru is also in 'Simple Sashiko', but not the other two - they are a bit more complicated!

The history section from '...Inspirations' is included...

Plus a great sashiko gallery selected from both 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' and '...Inspirations', including sashiko works by Yuza Sashiko Guild members as well as me.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Today's Quilter will have the large sashiko sampler from '...Ultimate...' displayed on their stand at Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham.  If you take out a subscription during the show, you'll get the sashiko special to take home with you too, in advance of it arriving in the shops.

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook in Spanish

Available soon!

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook

I've been getting quite a few e mails recently about "The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook". Apparently, quilters are having problems tracking down copies of the Krause (USA) edition. Shops are also having the same difficultly.

It turns out that the Krause edition has gone out of print, although the David & Charles edition (which I sell and can be found on Amazon.com) has just reprinted (again) and there don't seem to be any plans to allow that edition to go OP.

If you have been trying to get hold of the Krause edition and are having problems, could you send me an e mail please? I will forward the e mail to my editor at D & C who will pass the information on to Krause. If they feel there is a reasonable demand, they may be persuaded to reprint. You can e mail me via the contact link on my website (site link is top right on this page).

Thanks!

Yuza sashiko links - with pictures

You might be interested in these pages about Ayame Endo, a Yuza sashiko stitcher whose "Yuza" sampler, documenting the various designs traditional to Yuza-machi, appears as the first item in the "Inpsirations Gallery" section of "The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook".

- page about Ayame Endo

- her sashiko on striped fabric

If you are viewing these pages using Internet Explorer, click the right mouse button for a drop down menu and select "translate this page" option. The translation isn't perfect but it will give you the gist of the article.

Ayame's work is stunning!

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!

Quilt Show at Shonai Airport, Yamagata Prefecture

While I was away at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey, my friends at Peaceful Heart Quilt Group in Yuza-machi, Yamagata, Japan, were setting up their quilt exhibition at Shonai Airport. Reiko Domon, who leads the group, is wearing the headband in the photo below - two of her quilts are hanging behind (the one on the left has photos on fabric). Some of their recent sashiko work includes the leather and sashiko handbags in the second photo.

I sent some of the projects from "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations" -

- and several quilts, including "Japanese Fans" (I hope the others arrived OK!)

The hanao (straps) on these geta are one of my favourite things in their exhibition! So chic...

Reiko sent me a photo of this vibrant mid Showa era girl's kimono - I'm guessing it is wool muslin. She is going to send it to me, so it will be a lovely addition to my children's kimono collection.