Back to work, and prepping for sashiko.

On Monday I went back to work after 10 weeks sick leave and 1 week annual leave. I had forgotten the Monday morning commute but the traffic was fairly light. I was surprised that after that number of weeks I still woke up before the alarm so I could turn it off without disturbing anyone. I had a good day and slowly got back into the swing of the work day. It was interesting catching up with the office gossip.  I have promised myself I will not be working in the evening and so last night I started work on the stitching on my Japanese quilt. 

The navy blocks on this quilt will have some sashiko pattern on them. I'm not adding the next round until I'll finished the sashiko. 

Sashiko is a Japanese style of needlework that was used for mending, reinforcing or decorating clothes. The sashiko also helped to make the garment thicker and therefore warmer. The work itself uses a running stitch and the stitches can be used to create fabulous geometric designs. I have a source book with lots of designs and there are so many that I want to try!

I got interested in sashiko several years ago but it is only recently that I have started to try the patterns and this is the first time I have tried to incorporate it into a quilt. The needles used are long and narrow and this helps to take a lot of running stitches before the need to pull the thread through the fabric which means you can't use an embroidery hoop. For this reason I will complete the sashiko panels before moving onto the next round as the fabric will be easier to manipulate.

Before I could start stitching I needed to mark the pattern I'd chosen onto the fabric. There are different ways to do this. The choices I have to hand were my Hera fabric marker, a white ink marking pen and a white marking pencil.

I gave the three of them a try to see what would work best for me. The Hera marker was good but not so easy if I use one of the stencils as it won't fit into some of th small gaps. The marks it makes do last well.

The white ink pen gave a really good, clear line but needs to be washed out with soapy water. The white pencil gave a more restrained line but just required a little water to wash it out. I also tried tailors chalk which worked well but got brushed off easily whilst holding the fabric for stitching.  I therefore decided to use the white pencil.  At this point I made a mental note that I should use the Hera marker more when marking quilting lines.

Having sorted out how to mark the fabric and the patterns I would use it was time to collect my threads and needles. Sashiko thread is a strong non divisible thread that comes in a large variety of colours. Below are the colours I have at present but I want to buy some of the variegated thread as it looks so pretty. You can use pearl cotton or embroidery floss. If using embroidery floss 4 strands are usually recommended. The white cotton on the left is a skein I've been using. The information I read and watched on YouTube before trying sashiko told me that when you open the skein it easier to cut the skein and then plait the thread to keep it together. When you need a new thread you pull it from the top of the loop and rest stays neat in the plait. This also gives a long length of thread.

I know I'm going to use white thread for some of the stitches but I'm hoping to use some of the coloured thread a well. So the markings are ready for stitching and I've made a start. For now I'm putting this project away so I can watch Silent Witness. We are currently rewatching all the series and have got to session 24. To do the stitching I need to concentrate on the marking and where to stitch next. This is not conducive to watching something that you need to concentrate on, therefore for the rest of the evening I will be knitting and if I'm lucky I will finish the second sleeve of my cardigan. 

Take care

Lyndsey