The end of Denman College

I was very sad to read about this on Facebook tonight - Denman College is likely to close.

I taught a lot of sashiko courses at Denman College, before I moved to Scotland. It will be missed. See more photos from Denman on my blog. Of course, it is also where the Denman Kannon was started.

The Denman Kannon - the original pattern

I'm sure I once wrote a blog post that included the working drawing for the Denman Kannon but I can't find it in the label cloud on the right - if I can't find it, blog readers probably can't either! So here it is again.  It was drawn on an A4 sheet, scanned, printed out over 16 A4 sheets, each sheet enlarged to A3, stuck together with sellotape and traced through.  Not very high tech.

 

The original inspiration was a print of Kannon by Hokusai, from the 13th volume of his 'Manga', published around 1823 (if I remember right).  I kept the fish, but changed the pose and details of Kannon Bosatsu, taking ideas from other Kannon images I found on the internet - basic pose from one, face from another, crown from another etc. until I got it how I wanted.

... generally portrayed as a young woman donned in a white flowing robe and usually wearing necklaces of Indian/Chinese royalty. In her left hand is a jar containing pure water, and the right holds a willow branch. The crown usually depicts the image of Amitabha Buddha.

I wanted to have the willow bough so I could stitch the leaves by adapting a single hitomezashi hishizashi (diamond sitch) motif.

The Denman Kannon 'on tour' - Sakata, Japan

Photos from the exhibition Reiko Domon organised recently - I'm not sure if this was the exhibition at Sakata Manchinka or the one in Akita City (may have misunderstood her e mail), but they will be having another sashiko exhibition in Yamagata City in May next year. As you can see, the Denman Kannon is still in Japan!

At Denman College

The course started this evening. The students are going to be making pictorial designs in sashiko, filled in with hitomezashi stitches. Tonight we just had a relaxing session, looking at how I designed and made the Denman Kannon, plus how different threads, fabrics and stitches produce different effects.

As some of the students have already done the first sashiko course and have stitched some hitomezashi patterns already, tomorrow we will start off with the grass pattern kusazashi the Yuza Sashiko quilters taught at Harrogate. It will be new for everyone and is a good way to learn the basics of marking and stitching hitomezashi designs, plus it is a pattern which 'grows' quickly !

Denman Kannon - finished

There are still some tacking lines left in the centre part - I might add a tiny bit more "invisible" hand quilting on the robe, if there's time.

Thank you to Anette, Bet & Caroline at Gresford Craft Group tonight, who helped me get the tacking out of the border of my other piece, "Lulea Blockhus" (Lulea Log Cabin - sorry, can't do the o accent easily on blogger!) The centre quilting is almost finished and I will bind it tomorrow. At 93in x 69in, it is the biggest quilt I've made for a while.

Denman Kannon - DONE!

Borders finished and quilt bound!

Today has been wet all day, so it is not possible to take the quilt outside for a photo. At six and a half feet long (just under 2 metres), I can't hang it anywhere in the house where I can stand back far enough to get the whole quilt in one photo, but there are some details of the borders already in the camera, so I'll add those after dinner.

I must weigh this quilt. At the end of September, I'm going to Denmark to teach and would like to include this quilt in my talk - most of my 23kg baggage allowance is going to be a selection of the "Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles" talk, including some of the old furoshiki and items from the two sashiko books. It would be nice to be able to take a couple of sashiko quilts, perhaps even the sampler from "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations" and the Kasuri Sampler from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match" too. I am back at Denman College teaching another sashiko course at the beginning of October, so of course I want to be able to show it there too, as that's where it all began, last September. It would also be great to be able to send it to Peaceful Heart Quilt Group for their sashiko exhibition in October, but it might be difficult to get it back for a while...

The binding is the dark blue Olympus tsumugi cotton sold by Euro Japan Links Limited. It makes a perfect binding fabric to go with the narrow width striped tsumugi cotton I use for borders. I have used a double binding, good for wallhangings as the double layer of fabric makes the binding firmer, plus it is easier than single layer binding for doing the mitred corners - the technique is shown in my "Compendium of Quilting Techniques" (with the same fabric on another quilt).

Top border section -


Increasing the stitch density on either side has worked - follow a line from the top of the lighter border sections across the quilt and you should pass (more or less) through the eyes of the goddess.

Top border right and left hand details - the first photo shows part of the quilt border from the back (left) - the blue and white jacquard backing fabric looked like a miniature version of the hishizashi (diamond sashiko) pattern. There are three versions of kikkou (hexagons), which are made by weaving extra thread through the yokogushi base stitches - vertical on the left side, and two horizontal versions on the right (one has an extra stitch in the centre of the hexagon, while the other has open centres but slightly thicker thread used for the weaving).


Bottom right border detail - variations on kakinohanazashi and yama patterns merging into each other.

Tomorrow's quilting - finishing the block centres for my Swedish quilt (simple shippo-style four petalled "flowers") and continuing with the spiral quilting on the rest of the random Log Cabin blocks. After the dense stitching on the Denman Kannon, I hope this quilt will go more quickly. While sewing the border on Kannon today, I realised that the Swedish quilt is almost twice the size - the edges of the quilt are approx. 90in and 7oin, wheras the Kannon edges are 77in and 45in.

Denman Kannon - border progress

The right hand part of the lower border echoes the patterns at the top left, but these rows will become a double version of kakinohanazashi - there are three alternate rows between the pairs of rows this time. It takes a bit more concentration to stitch the right row sequence! The bottom right corner will be another variation on the yama design, but with larger "mountain peaks".

The photos below show the centre of the top border complete and (second photo) a detail of the sugizashi (cedar stitch). As usual, click the photos to see them full size on your screen (stitch for stitch!), then use your browsers "back" button to return to the blog.

Today I made more inroads into the bottom part of the border. As of last night, I had some of the bottom strip stitched with foundation rows. I got that finished today and started on the left hand side border, where I am about at third of the way across. The yama mountain peaks can be seen in the bottom right corner, where the two sets of stitch rows intersect.


The bottom half of the border is now divided into sections for different stitches by continuing the wave/water motif from the bottom left and tacking the lines so I can see them! I am going to fill the sections in with another couple of stitch variations (I'm still deciding, but I want a good contrast).


Rather than include hitomezashi patterns that begin with many different foundation rows, I wanted to explore those which begin with equal stitches and gaps. So I couldn't include patterns like hishizashi (diamond stitch) or the larger variations on komezashi, which look like little starry flowers. I also didn't want to start putting colour in the border, even if I have used several different white/cream threads there.

In conventional quilting, a more densely quilted area tends to draw the quilt in more than a lightly quilted one, which can make a quilt wavy and uneven, but the hitomezashi, provided the stitches are kept relaxed and not too tight, doesn't do this. The opposite seems to be true with the hitomezashi borders, as they are so densely stitched, they don't pull in at all - although the wadding is completely flattened and the border feels quite firm.

BTW, if you haven't done so already, check out Ferret's blog link (at the right). She is working on an amazing pictorial piece with a design from the graphic novel "Cancertown", using the longarm machine. It will be on show at Festival of Quilts in August, where Ferret has a special solo exhibition space.

Denman Kannon - Thursday

Not much worthy of a photo today (will add them tomorrow). I finished the sugizashi section (see the last Kannon post) and stitched a lot of the foundation rows for the bottom half of the border. By using similar patterns in diagonally opposite corners, the border will have a semi-symmetry. The bottom right border will have the double version of kakinohanazashi, achieved by a different sequence of alternate and double rows, while the bottom left corner will have dantsunagi - if there is enough time, I'll add extra diagonal stitches for yabane, which I didn't do at the top right. I've taken photos of the foundation rows, but these will make more sense when you can compare them with the finished stitch pattern, so I'll hold pics till tomorrow.

If you are interested in these hitomezashi patterns, they are included in "The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook", which has a large section on hitomezashi designs.

Denman Kannon - more border stitching

I got delayed starting stitching today - but found out how to change the ignition monitor on a Vauxhall Cavalier, after I had to get the AA out because my car wouldn't start. As the spare part won't be in stock till Friday, and I really can't take time out taking the car to a garage for such a tiny job (leaving it, coming home by bus and back to collect it would take up too much time = less sewing time!), I got a quick lesson in how to undo the various plug ins and put the new one in when it arrives and, for the meantime, the car has a second hand part in it... More success than trying to match the innards of one of the bathroom taps at B & Q (Guy will try Plumb Centre tomorrow), although I hadn't seen the part inside the tap in the house first. If I had, I think I might have spotted the lack of a screw fitting for the top of the tap. Spending so much time looking at geometric things and fitting patterns together gives one a good eye for this kind of thing!

Back to stitching just after lunchtime. I finished the komezashi variations from yesterday. As they have taken more than twice the time to stitch than patterns like kakinohanazashi, I feel justified in using them for only small accent areas at the top of the border. The lower border section will have variations on kakinohanazashi and I will divide that border in a different way - something that reflects the feeling of the waves I think.

The photo (slightly out of focus) shows a section of sugizashi (cedar stitch). I wanted to include this as a reference to the cedar forrest on My Haguro, where I bought some of the threads. It isn't difficult to build up from the basic foundation rows. Look closely at the point where the completed pattern ends on the left and you will see an extra row midway between two foundation rows. The other two rows are basically fitted into the gaps. It is an old stitch and was often used on sorihikihappi (sled hauling waistcoats) in Shonai, like the one in the photo below.

Denman Kannon - komezashi variations

The threads from Euro Japan Links arrived at 12.30 today. I had a tiny amount of the Olympus antique white thread left (I used up all the oddments I had of that thread this morning).

First I filled in the last few vertical rows on the right hand border (top photo). Where the stitch lines cross in the border corners it made sense to use a hitomezashi stitch with vertical and horizontal lines, so this top right corner is a dantsunagi (linked steps) design. If I had more time, I might stitch part of it with diagonal lines, to turn it into a yabane (arrow feather) pattern, but I don't think there will be enough time to do this. I need to get all the border stitching done before I machine sew the first stage of the binding, as I am going to hide the starting and finishing knots around the edge inside the binding.

Today we had heavy rain most of the day and the air felt damp. I didn't want to mark up the bottom half of the border just yet, because the damp atmosphere could make the lines start to disappear (I'm marking with a Clover White Marking Pen (fine), which comes off with water!) So I continued filling in the patterns across the top, all variations on komezashi (rice stitch) and juujizashi ("+" stitch) - the komezashi patterns are done with diagonal lines on a foundation of juujizashi. The first photo below shows the beginning of stitching these sections (the edge of each section marked with a tacked line, as before). Simply changing the position of the diagonal line - from linking the edges of the + stitch, to linking the + stitch centres, to going between the stitches - makes the difference between the patterns. The stitch on the far left of the photo gives a woven effect (I don't know the name, although I've seen it on some old sashiko pieces), the one next to it is masuzashi (square measure stitch - there is another pattern with the same name), then komezashi and the komezashi variation (you could call this kowari komezashi - just means "rice stitch variation"). I think Chie Ikeda mentioned that this last stitch variation came from Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture. Click the photos to see more detail.

Denman Kannon - threads progress

Ahem, I've only got about three strands of that antique white thread left... so will be awaiting the post eagerly tomorrow!

I'm not sure now that 2 extra skeins of 100 metres will be enough. The bottom part of the border is slightly shorter (as in the area below the waves on the edges), but I think I will still need to work in some shades of cream to eke out the thread. The stitches I have done so far use lines of thread vertically and horizontally, but some of the other patterns I plan to use have diagonal stitch lines too = much more thread.

I will post another photo before I resume stitching tomorrow.

Denman Kannon - top border progress

After doing the foundation stitching across the top of the border yesterday, I started stitching across those lines, to make the patterns appear - as if by magic, as people used to say. It is quite magical how simple rows of running stitch suddenly start to reveal patterns. This is a fascinating feature of hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) and one of those things I like to play around with, as so many patterns can be magic'd out of the same basic rows. The photo above shows how far I got yesterday - the top border is stitched all the way across.

So any patterns where the stitches cross would have the vertical stitches crossing each time, like komezashi (rice stitch), I stitched the first rows going along the top border but across the side border. I am going to switch to always stitching along each border first, as this firmly quilts the layers before I'm constantly turning the work and makes stitching easier.

To get the kakinohanazashi (persimmon flower stitch) and the yamazashi (mountain stitch) to appear in the same border, I switched between stitching staggered rows (yamazashi) and alternating between single rows and paired rows staggered (look at the ends of the horizontal rows in the middle of the picture). By doubling up on every third row when I stitched the second part, both stitch patterns appear.


I marked the divisions between the different stitches with a tacked diagonal line, roughly continuing the "rays" behind the halo.

The next section across the top is stitched a little like juujizashi ("+" stitch), but with the second set of stitches in the gaps left between the first, rather than actually crossing the first stitches.

Yesterday I realised that I would run out of the main sashiko thread I'm using, even though I'm using it singly - Olympus sashiko thread (100 metre) in antique white (colour 101). I have eked it out and blended in a couple of other threads (Yokota medium white and a thicker sashiko thread Chie Ikeda gave me), but the thicker sashiko thread is harder to stitch through the backing and wadding. Having a little variation in the threads makes for a subtle change across the border which I like, so I am going to try a similar effect in the bottom half of the border using Yokota brand cream and the Olympus cream from the same range as the antique white. Just to be on the safe side, the first thing I did this morning was phone an order for two more antique white skeins to Euro Japan Links Limited - these will (most likely, knowing how quick they are!) arrive in tomorrow's post around lunchtime. If I run out before then, I'll switch back to working on the Lulea Blockhus quilt until the new threads arrive.

Back to stitching! I'm just glad the side borders at the bottom are shorter (less stitching)...

Denman Kannon - extra quilting

With the quilt layered and tacked, I'm adding extra hand quilting to the centre panel and areas where the design spills out over the borders, before stitching several hitomezashi patterns across the top and bottom (currently plain) sections of the borders. The camera flash has made the quilt look flatter than it is. The wadding is Hobbs Polydown, in black, so it is giving quite a lot of extra depth but it won't beard through. The hand quilting is close to the sashiko lines, so it is practically invisible, and there is just enough to hold the layers together - this could only work for a wallhanging - a bed quilt would need more quilting! While it has been interesting to see the quilt take on a more three dimensional look, the "invisible" quilting hasn't been very interesting to do, because the stitches are pretty much invisible close up and the effect of the high-loft wadding only really appears when the quilt is hung up.


The use of hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) patterns in the border is a favourite finishing technique used by my friend Reiko Domon to add extra sashiko accents to her sashiko & patchwork quilts.



I plan to try a transition effect, with one sashiko pattern merging into another. This is possible in a reasonably subtle way, because several komezashi (rice stitch) variations share the same foundation stitches as a number of other patterns, including kakinohanazashi (persimmon flower stitch). I tried a similar effect with a cushion for Euro Japan Links Limited, but with the patterns divided into diagonal bands. There is a photo of it in the Inspiration Gallery in "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations" too. The shaded thread used for this cushion (shading from white to brown) gives the stitch patterns a feeling of transparency.

Denman Kannon - waves & lotus blossoms

I finished the waves and lotus blossom border details this afternoon. The next step is adding the top and bottom borders, then layering the panel with the wadding (black Hobbs Polydown) and backing. Then quilting alongside some of the sashiko lines in the middle section, and adding LOTS of hitomezashi in the borders...

Earlier I wasn't sure if I liked the effect of the lotus blossoms and leaves. The lotus leaves in particular look a bit sparse and empty compared with the dense willow leaves. Once I add the hitoemezashi to the border the balance will change again, making the top and bottom of the border appear much lighter (more like the stitch density in the centre of the halo), so I think it will look better once that is done and there is more contrast.

The back is covered in knots, both ordinary single knots at the start and finish and hatamusubi (loom knots) to join in new lengths of thread. As this will be hidden inside the finished quilt, I have taken a few photos just for the record!

Denman Kannon sashiko - borders added

The side borders are on and I am stitching the details of the waves and lotus blossoms which go out over the border today. Val took this photo at Wrexham Quilting Circle's meeting last night.

Once these details are finished (probably tomorrow), I'll be able to sew the top and bottom borders (the same striped tsumugi kimono cotton) and will baste it next week. I am going to use a black Hobbs Polydown wadding and give it just enough hand quilting to hold all the layers in place and give the figure & fish a slightly 3-D effect. I got a great jacquard backing fabric, woven in blue and white, from Fabrics Galore when I was at the National Quilt Championships - wide enough to do the backing without any seams, and the weave will camouflage the border sashiko stitches very effectively on the back.

In the end, it was just as easy to draw the waves and blossoms freehand into the border, with the A4 drawing as a guide...

Once the layers are tacked, I am going to mark a grid across the narrow (5mm) stripes and stitch hitomezashi sashiko in the border, very much as my friend Reiko Domon does. It will give a nicely defined frame effect to the whole piece and the stripes will be less dominant behind the hitomezashi.

Everything (fingers crossed) is on track for Festival of Quilts!

Denman Kannon sashiko update

The sashiko panel has progressed a bit further, with the addition of the halo details. I used the Olympus medium sashiko thread (40metre skein) on the outside of the halo, in bright white, and shaded through various white and cream sashiko threads (several brands) to a darker cream in the centre. I'm trying to make it "glow". Next I want to add more detailed stitching to the fish scales (using hishi seigaiha - diamond waves - as the pattern) and some hitomezashi patterns to the robe borders. I will also stitch the clouds at the top left before adding the striped tsumugi cotton borders and stitching the waves overlapping the border fabric. At that stage, I'll have to tape the paper pattern to a window to trace the lotus blossoms, cloud and wave details at the sides.

I'll be working on this piece at Edinburgh over the weekend.

Takenoko is unimpressed!

The Envelope Bag - revisited - and Denman Kannon update.

Sometimes I remake my favourite bags from my bag books. This version of the envelope bag was finished as a Christmas present -

The original is in "21 Terrific Patchwork Bags", my first bag book. There are minor differences - I didn't have the same Japanese gold print fabrics, so I used some that were as similar as possible, and the cord in plain (the original was a beige & eau de nil green spiral braid). The new version has a lovely ornate gold tone button. I wish I'd had those for the original!


Work is progressing on the Denman Kannon. I have completed the leaves and the fish outlines, the face of the goddess and started on the halo. I used a single strand fine sashiko thread and stem stitch for the face, as running stitch would look to bitty at this scale IMHO.

I am using the various shades of cream, antique white and brilliant white produced by different sashiko thread manufacturers, to create a glow effect for the halo, starting with Olympus mediume white (from the 40metre skein range) on the outside and working inwards to Olympus cream 100 metres. I ought to check the 40 metre cream too. In between, there are threads from Kinkame and Yokota. The colour difference doesn't really show in flash photos, so I'll try to take a better photo once I've completed the sections between the halo rings. It is my "travelling" project at the moment.