I've been very interested in Japanese Sashiko for awhile.  I took a couple of classes at City Quilters in the past year.  I prefer machine sewing to hand sewing but I love having a few hand projects for those times when I can't be near a machine.  I love the simplicity of white cotton thread on blue indigo fabric and the geometric designs. Sashiko requires a LOT of patience.

In my last sashimi class, my teacher Judy showed us the sashiko project that she's been working on and I decided to replicate the project.

I purchased a 2 yard piece of Japanese indigo fabric.  I drew boxes that measure approximately 8"x10."  Each of these boxes will have a different pattern.  These patterns will have to be drawn onto each of these boxes.  I use Clover white pen for fabric and also chacopy paper also by Clover.  I photocopied a pattern from sashimi books and cut it to fit my 8"x10" box.  Then I take 1 Chacopy sheet to place under the pattern and taped it to the box using masking tape.  You have to take care to be very accurate here so that it fits into the box perfectly. Then using a ruler and a ball point pen, I went over every line of the pattern so that it gets copied onto the fabric.  This is a long process so get comfortable! Once finished, pattern and chacopy paper can be removed but make sure to check that all lines have been drawn onto the fabric.

Once all lines have been copied onto the fabric, pattern and Chacopy paper can be removed.  At this point, it would be wise to use the Clover white fabric marking pen to go over the lines.  This is because the chalk from Chacopy paper rubs off.

Now the sewing begins. I like to use plain white cotton sashiko thread. I also use a long sashiko needle.   To start sewing, I put a quilter's knot, winding the thread around 2x and then begin sewing from one end of the grid to the other.  Each stitch is approximately .25."  It can be slightly smaller but whatever stitch length you pick, it's best to be consistent throughout the project as that will look best.

So I got my first box sewn and I love how it came out!

This summer my son expressed interest in sleep away camp so I did some research and found a great camp.  It is about 5 hours away from Brooklyn and is focused on wilderness and outdoor living.  On Saturday we loaded up our car with his duffle and backpack and drove north.  We spent a night at a quaint Bed and Breakfast and on Sunday dropped him off.  But before we dropped him off, we decided to stop at a working farm.  

At the farm, there were putting together a quilt exhibition for later in the summer.

So now I am child-free with time to work on my own quilts!  How fast they grow.

I have been taking a Quilt as you go class with Judy at City Quilters.  The biggest quilt I have made is a twin size one for my son's bed.  That was already cumbersome to quilt on my sewing machine so I never tried one bigger.  I realized this may allow me to make larger size quilts with my Bernina home sewing machines.  The trick is to quilt each block individually with backing and batting already cut.  So before starting to sew, you'll need to know exactly what the plan is for your quilt.

Here is the quilt design for this one.  The pattern is called Trip Around the World and I decided to use Modern meadow line fabric from Joel Dewberry's collection.  I collected the entire line awhile back and was waiting for a good project.

Each block was originally 7" but will be trimmed down to 6.5".  The quilt is eventually going to be a throw size quilt which is approximately 60"x60."

I have cut out a ton of 2.5" blocks recently.  I use them to make coasters.  I have a huge stack of them ready for gifts.  I also use these blocks to make trivets.  It is a great way to see some of my favorite prints together without having make a huge quilt.  I like to use Quilter's Dream Select batting.

Mini Quilt 

For July 4th, I decided to visit my friend Nana in Austin, Texas.  I brought my most recent mini quilt as a gift for Nana's daughter Maggie who is 3 years old.  It has some of the same Japanese fabric that I used in the drunken path quilt I made for Maggie when she was first born.  Now she can use the mini quilt for her little stuffed animals.

This is a Bear Paw pattern and I used a paper piecing technique.  This technique helps to align the tiny seams for each paw.  The only catch is, it is painstakingly slow to remove the paper once the quilt top is sewn together.  I used some of my favorite prints for the paws - such as old Heather Ross print of the poolside, Lecien Minny Muu, Yuwa prints by Megumi Sakakibara, Aneela Hoey and some Suzuko Koseki text prints.  For the sashing, I used  a Roman numeral print by Suzuko Koseki in yellow and Yuwa little grid print in purple.  I used Kei honeycomb in pink for the binding.

 

I used a Megumi Sakakibara print in pink for the back.

Here is a close up of some of the paw prints.