My sashiko stitch along sampler quilt - what's it all about?

The sashiko sampler quilts I made for 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' and 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match have always been popular, and I have used a sampler format for the longer sashiko courses I've taught over many years. When Olympus Thread Mfg. Co. initially asked me to design some pre-printed sashiko panels for them, I immediately thought that the panels would be great for a sampler quilt format, but I wanted to wait to start mine until the second panel set came out in June 2020, so I would have sixteen large geometric and sixteen kamon crest 9 1/2in blocks to play with, plus thirty two smaller 4 1/2in square blocks.

Now the new panels (coded C and D) are available, I have designed a brand new sashiko sampler quilt, which blends my love of the traditional British medallion or 'frame' patchwork with sashiko, with the sashiko thread colours coordinated around the print fabric used for the central panel and cornerstones. Like the panels, I wanted this design to be flexible, so I've come up with several different centre and border options, so the patchwork ranges from a fairly easy version (shown above), which uses striped fabric for the outer border and centre sashing, to a more complex design with multiple narrow borders around the centre and a 'cracked ice' design in applique on the outer border (scroll down for this diagram). Each quilt uses two panels - two kamon crest designs, two geometric designs, or one of each kind - in the same colour or two different colours. The design could also be adapted to replace the long outer borders squares pieced from two more panels, so you could use four panels and have all the designs in one quilt (this is going to be my fourth version). There are many, many possibilities. This blog post introduces you to the designs and the materials you will need.

How to join in

All you need to do is keep following the instructions as I post them on this blog. There's no need to sign up to take part and, best of all, it is FREE! You will need either the printed panels or some other way of marking up the sashiko designs (most of the patterns are in my books, and of course you could choose alternative patterns from those too). For those who are marking up their own panels, I'll post some info about sashiko marking.

What you do need to do now is to start gathering your materials together. The printed panels, sashiko threads and border fabrics are available on my website, www.susanbriscoe.com, along with some of the printed fabrics I am using (to be added shortly).  As I should have been at Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham this weekend, with the show opening on Thursday 30th July and running until Sunday 2nd August, I will be having FREE UK SHIPPING from my website for the duration of the show, and £3.20 off all the international shipping rates. As (inevitably) the live exhibition has been cancelled for this year, Festival of Quilts are running a virtual version of the show on their website called 'Beyond the Festival of Quilts', so do check it out. Stuart Hillard will be announcing the winners of the virtual quilt competition live on Thursday 30th at 12.00 noon, and there are live workshops online, plus a traders' gallery. I'm sure many other traders will be offering 'show specials' online, so have a browse and check out their own websites too.

I'm still stitching my first set of panels, so I will start posting the tutorials in a few day's time. You will be able to dip in and out of them as you wish, and can work through the stitch along at your own pace. The tutorials will be left up permanently on this blog, so you will be able to return to them any time you like (so long as Google doesn't decide to delete Blogger!) I also have a Facebook group called 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', which you are most welcome to join, where members will be able to share photos of their stitch along progress.

Towards the end of the stitch along, I will be adding a pdf pattern to my website, including all the patchwork quilt variations in the one pattern. For customers buying their sashiko panels from my website, I will be supplying a discount code so this pattern will be free. Information about the pattern release will be added here, on my Facebook artist page and in my website newsletter (you can sign up by sending me an email via the contact form).

About the sashiko designs

Many of the kamon crests were based on those I stitched for 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match', although many have been tweaked a little over the years, as I've come up with slight improvements to the stitching, mainly through teaching the designs repeatedly in workshops. We also included some kamon on the 2020 panels that were featured either in the 'Motifs' chapter of 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', or have been used for kits or class samples. The new panels include kanji characters for the seasons - spring (haru), summer (natsu), autumn (aki) and winter (fuyu), in that order - plus four variations on hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) patterns. All the panels measure 110cm wide x 60cm.

The geometric designs were from traditional patterns in 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', and the new C panel series includes old geometric square sashiko designs from Sakata city for the 4 1/2in blocks. The A series (2019) features some of the flower and leaf motifs I originally drew from traditional Japanese designs for coasters and smaller projects (these were also included in the Sourcebook).

The patchwork designs

I love traditional British medallion or 'frame' patchwork quilts and coverlets, although this isn't a layout I've used for a sashiko quilt before. Many antique medallion quilts feature specially printed centre panels as a large square, circle, oval or octagon, and a large scale fabric print makes a great substitute for one of these. It would also be a good place to use a cushion panel or a large scale Japanese printed panel. With a half metre of 42 - 43in wide fabric, there's enough for a 15 1/2in centre panel, plus four 9 1/2in cornerstones. With slightly wider 54in wide furnishing fabric, I should be able to just about squeeze out four applique circles too, for the most challenging version of the patchwork (shown below) - 3/4 yard of 42in wide fabric would be ample for this detail.

I am planning to make the quilt with several different fabric and panel combinations, starting with the easiest patchwork design (at the start of this post) and finishing with the most complex one (above, with applique details), using a different combination of sashiko panels, feature fabric and border designs each time. The panels are available in six different 'regular' colours, hand printed in Japan on Kofu Tsumugi (a lovely fabric for both sashiko and patchwork, woven with a coloured warp and black weft) - ink black, indigo blue, light blue (slate), light grey (taupe), dark green, and deep red - which are all available from my online shop.

I still have some of last autumn's 'special limited edition' A and B panels, in mustard yellow, brick red and russet too. As the special edition colours are running out now, these could be combined with a different panel colour for the second one, either choosing a closely related shade, such as deep red with brick red or light grey (taupe) with mustard yellow - or going for a more dramatic contrast like mustard yellow and ink black, as shown below. The 'checkerboard' sashiko panel effect is also a good idea if you are combining a panel you bought last year with one of the 2020 series, as there may be a tiny colour variation in the fabric. Another option, if you love the limited edition colours, would be to get the kamon crest designs as a pre-printed panel and draw a selection of geometric panels yourself, using the designs from 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' and 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match', as I have the same plain fabrics in stock - Kofu Tsumugi - as precuts and yardage.

Thread and fabric combinations

So far, I have put together three combinations for my sashiko sampler quilts. As sashiko thread is available in so many beautiful colours, I thought it would be fun to stitch the sashiko in colours that coordinate with the fabric prints, using threads from the 6ply 20m medium sashiko thread range. The panels were designed to be stitched with this thread, used as a single strand or doubled, as is more traditional in sashiko. The kamon crest designs work best with either a combination of doubled and single thread, or single thread throughout, as some parts are more detailed and doubled thread might look a bit too chunky. I have been using single medium thread (6ply) for leaves, leaf veins, flower stamens etc. with doubled thread for some flower petals, which also gives an interesting effect with the shaded threads (I'll post photos of some of my panels soon). The 80m fine (3ply) sashiko thread range could also be used doubled (a single strand would look a little too fine I think), and this range has a handy miniskeins pack, with 20 x 10m skeins of thread, useful if just a touch of colour is needed. 

My original sampler quilts for the two books, shown towards the top of the page, actually used the 4ply fine sashiko thread I stock as 370m skeins, used doubled, but that would be a lot of left over thread thread, unless you are going to stitch the sashiko panels all in the same colour.  However, the 4ply fine makes a great thread for big stitch quilting, so perhaps having a more limited thread colour palette and using it both for the sashiko and the quilting would be another idea. One sashiko panel with eight large and eight small squares can be comfortably stitched with one 100m skein of medium sashiko thread too.

There are plenty of threads to choose from, so you can get whatever effect you want. I decided to go ultra colourful for my panels! Here are my print fabric, panel, and thread combinations.  In the end, I probably won't use every thread I've shown for each quilt, as I am further refining the thread selection as I go. I am trying to make sure that any thread is used in at least two different sashiko blocks.

1) Kamon panels B and D in black, with 1/2 metres 'Ming Embroidery' in black, from Philip Jacob's Silk Road collection, a half width of 1.5 metres deep red Kofu Tsumugi, and 2m of striped Japanese Shima cotton in shade 2720E. This combination is shown in my drawing at the start of this post.  I will be adding the 'Ming Embroidery' fabric to my website in the next day or two, available by the half metre. This is definitely the brightest and most colourful thread selection.

2) Kamon panels A and B in russet (special limited edition), with 1/2 metre vintage furnishing fabric,  'Matsue' by Jonelle, with a classical Chinese landscape (I will be adding some of this to my website soon), a plain Kofu Tsumugi cotton fabric for the wide border and centre sashing (possibly 2501, light grey (taupe)), and one of the Japanese striped cottons for the main sashing (I haven't yet decided which!)  Lightweight vintage furnishing fabrics are only slightly thicker than ordinary patchwork cottons and almost the same weight as the Kofu Tsumugi used for the sashiko, so they make a great combination. As this fabric doesn't have any pink or red tones, I may use cream for the plum and cherry blossoms instead. My plan for this quilt is to use the same 'cracked ice' pattern for the wide borders as in version 3, but this time to simply quilt the lines as big stitch, rather than applique narrow strips (easier!)

3) My third fabric and thread combination will be for the more complicated version of the patchwork, with applique circles and strips on the outer borders. Once again, the feature fabric is a lightweight vintage furnishing fabric. I only have a couple of pieces of this, found on eBay, with a very Victorian take on Japanese designs. I am still deciding the exact fabric combination for this, but I may use the A and B panel in mustard yellow, as I kept a set for myself when the limited edition colours were launched. I am sold out of panel A in mustard yellow, but still have a few B's, and it would combine very well with the light grey (taupe) as an alternative (I've shown my threads with the mustard yellow panels in first photo and the light grey in the second).

4) Once I've got these tops finished, I want to make a fourth sampler, using one A, B, C and D panel, perhaps using the A and C panels (geometrics) to make the outer long border, and the B and D panels (kamon) for the two inner borders. Perhaps this might be the more traditional one re colour! I have some new Takumi panels which will be added to the website shortly, featuring two stunning dragon designs - I used one to make this cushion recently. The dragon is available on black and indigo blue, and would make a stunning centre panel.

At the moment, I am stitching the kamon crest panels for the first sampler, using the really bright colours, and I will post photos of these very soon. I will be using this blog to deliver all the instructions and I hope to be able to add some short videos as well as step by step photos and instructions.

Let's have fun stitching sashiko!

V & A checkerboard quilt top

Mary Jenkins (author of the Little Welsh Quilts blog) posted on Facebook about the original checkerboard quilt in the V & A's collection, which is featured in this video of author Tracey Chevalier looking at quilts as part of research for a novel.  It reminded me that, although  pink and green modern update of this quilt was finished in 2012 (quilted by Ferret), I haven't yet quilted the one above.  There's always a few tops waiting to be done!

Antique quilt inspirations and two forthcoming exhibitions

Antique quilts have such wonderful designs and two forthcoming exhibitions will no doubt provide more inspitations.  At York, the Quilt Museum opens their new exhibition, 'The Blossoming of Patchwork', on May 18th.  With its focus on early printed fabrics, this promises to be very interesting and it will include some well-known quilts and coverlets from the collections.

One of the quilt images being used to promote the exhitbion online is the Mrs Billings coverlet which appears as a tiny thumbnail on the exhibitions page - here's a link to the larger image in the Heritage Collection online.  I'm looking forward to seeing this intricate early patchwork.  Australian quilter Karen Styles has drafted templates for a version of this patchwork, shown here on her website.  It's got a few changes from the original, but they are hard to spot and the effect is really lovely.  I wonder if there will be some more quilts inspired by this complex patchwork coverlet after the exhibition.

The patchwork in the photo at the top is my version of a checkerboard quilt that was shown as part of the V & A's 'Quilts 1700 - 2010' exhibition in 2010.  Like Karen's version of Mrs Billings' coverlet, it isn't identical to the original. I was interested in the process of creating a quilt with a similar effect to the original but not necessarily a replica, so I resized the squares so I could use charm packs. It's two thirds the size of the antique quilt. I left off the mini checkerboard blocks visible at the edges of the original quilt in the photo below (one taken by Sally Bramald when we attended the bloggers' preview), because the pieces would have been really tiny - less than 1/2in finished.  More links re my V & A repro quilts here.

 

Many of the quilts from the V & A's exhibition are about to be shown in Brisbane, at the Queensland Art Gallery, 15th June - 22nd September 2013, so our Australian friends will have a chance to see them and, I hope, be just as inspired to make their own modern versions.  If you can get to Brisbane, don't miss these quilts!

Repro quilts - medallion quilt centre panel

One of the difficulties in making your own version of many early nineteenth century quilts is finding something appropriate to use for the central medallion.  Quilters back then often used specially printed panels, rather like the 'cheater' panels and cushion panels sometimes made today, as the focal point of their quilt design.  Finding anything that substitutes for these adequately is a bit tricky, even though there are plenty of attractive and authentic reproduction fabrics around for the rest of the quilt.

The 'Sidmouth' quilt is in the Quilt Museum's collection.  I love the simple borders of squares and X patches - ideal for using 5in charm square prints - and the touches of cheddar yellow, madder reds and icky overprinted greens make it a very cheerful quilt. Click here to see the quilt in more detail in the Museum's online collections.  I started making notes for a repro of this quilt a few days ago, but got stuck for the centre panel.

After looking online to see if there was anything suitable (just checking out the usual fabric stores online), I more or less decided that the best I could do would be to use one of the two remaining reprints of the Fife coverlet centre in my stash.  I think these were printed over a decade ago and they are definitely in short supply now.  They are also much smaller than I really wanted.  The Fife coverlet is in the Quilt Museum's online collection resource - click here.  I've already used this panel for the centre of my V & A checkerboard repro quilt (shown on the cutting mat with the central patchwork arranged) and I didn't really want to use it again.

 

This afternoon, the Quilt Museum posted on Facebook - it turns out that they have reprinted the Sidmouth quilt centre as a panel and it is available in their online shop!  Here it is.  I ordered one straight away.  Mine will become the centre of a modern repro of the Sidmouth quilt.

 

What an amazing coincidence! I hope some more repro panels are in the pipeline.  I would love some yardage of the Circles quilt too...

Pink, Green and Brown Checkerboard quilt

Ferret mentioned yesterday that my quilt is currently on the frame. She's freehand longarm quilting it with a central design inspired by wrought iron swirls in browns, then leaves and flowers in pinks and greens, followed by more brown thread towards the edges and corners. Can't wait to see it. I'm entering it for the National Quilt Championships 'In the Pink' charity challenge at Sandown Park in June. EDIT - I forgot to menion that the fabric range was 'Sultry' (by BasicGrey) for Moda.


The quilt was inspired by one in the V & A's collection, and I made a scaled down 'replica' version of that first, which will be hand quilted (sometime!) -


The main theme category is 'Garden Party' and it would almost have fitted that too, although I have another quilt that I might finish for that - one I started for Wrexham Quilting Circles first theme challenge, 'Split Nine Patch'. That will tell my WQC friends that it's a quilt that's been on the go for a long time. I tacked it and started quilting it a long time ago and it's a quilt that always ends up on the back burner. We got it out of my UFO pile a couple of months ago and I decided it really should be finished asap, as I still really like it. Lots of shaded greens and, surprisingly for me, plains - I don't use a lot of flat colours in my quilts, but these shade from turqouise into purples. I'll have to find my stash of Steph Francis threads to finish this one.

Quilt design inspirations - not always Japanese...!

Some quilters seem to think that all my work is 'Japanesey', but what do you think? 'Time and Again' (above) is probably as much retro as anything, while 'Spinning Squares' (below) is an abstract block - not even any Japanese fabrics there (although it would look lovely with lots of colourful gold prints).


When I first started quilting, I had just returned from working in Japan and I didn't have many non Japanese fabrics. Quilt shops were thin on the ground (I didn't know of any in the early 1990s that were local to me), so my other alternative was making quilts from my dressmaking scrap bag, mainly 1970s and 80s fabrics, with lots of Laura Ashley and Liberty materials. While I was inspired by the work of Japanese quilters, who were in turn often inspired by traditional American quilts, I don't think my quilts generally are very obviously 'Japanese'. True, I often use the geometric designs traditionally seen in Japanese fabrics, architecture etc. but very little of my overall output features kimono, geisha, koi, dragons or whatever, and much of the vintage Japanese kimono fabric I sell is selected for it's abstract or retro designs - I don't have much with things like Japanese landscapes and I just don't sell 'geisha' fabric at all.

Quite a lot of the following quilts were featured in 'Compendium of Quilting Techniques' ('200 Quilting Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets'), so you may recognise them from there, but some are more recent.

A lot of my quilts have been inspired by other things, from Celtic design ('Solstice', my triangular quilt) ....

...to traditional British culture & folkore ('Fish & Chips', 'The Fabled Hare', 'Dancing Colours')...


... as well as antique quilts in the British tradition.


The remake of the checkerboard medallion above, in contemporary fabrics.


I like my retro 50s inspirations too!




The retro cot quilt uses blocks from the 'Retro Revival' chapter in '130 Little Quilt Blocks' -


The red and white 'Fanoe' quilt which is appearing in the latest edition of Fabrications magazine was based on cottage doors in Sunderho, Fanoe, Denmark.


'Lulea Blockhus' (Lulea Log Cabin) uses scrap bag fabrics in a random arrangement based on old Swedish utility quilts.


This earlier quilt, 'Roman Perdu', is just a scrap quilt -


My Oriental Log Cabin Sampler looks just as good made in Kona Bay Japanese prints or another colourway - mine is at the top, while Michelle Boyd from Chester Ps & Qs made the second one, begun in my workshop. I think the red and black one is by Eilish Lund, from Wrexham Quilting Circle.


'Masu' uses the Courthouse Steps construction with textured Japanese wool kimono fabrics, but the 'square in a square' result is very abstract (and not a pagoda or geisha in sight!)


Even a lot of the quilts made using my 'Japanese Circles and Squares' workshop design don't look especially Japanese. The blue one was made by Charlotte Coghill at last January's workshop at The Royal Hotel, Bridlington, while the mixed up batik patchwork blocks became my 'instant art quilt' version. The next is inspired by Chinese colours and patterns, while the last uses the same block design and layout for a community arts project.



Super Strips is based on the 'Hearts and Crosses' coverlet in the collection at the Quilt Museum, York. The original is made from C19th prints. This one by Margaret Evans from Gresford Craft Group is made from batiks -


This is my 1930s style print version and the crumb quilt made from the leftovers -


Maybe people only think I made quilts like this? LOL Hope you enjoyed the eye candy anyway.