The other day I practiced straight stitch – running stitch – sashiko. Holding a long needle and a palm thimble is a bit of a challenge. Yesterday I decided to try to draft a round pattern to practice stitching in curved lines. I used my pre-washed denim, a circular lotion tin, and a yellow chalk marking pencil I use in sewing. The big problem is that the fabric is very soft from washing – the sizing is gone – and I wonder if I should use unwashed denim or perhaps add a starch to make the fabric stiffer and easier to draw upon for design. When I was drawing the circles, the fabric slid around and some of the circles got squished up. You can see my sampler below!
Sashiko actually stitches up a lot more quickly than I thought it would. My stitches vary a lot, and that is something to work on, and I think how I hold the needle and thread in my right hand and manipulate the fabric with the left will help even things up. You learn as you go, for sure!
Below is the backside of my sampler.
One thing I do enjoy while working on sashiko is listening to audiobooks. It is a great way to sit outdoors, have some coffee, stitch and listen. Even better on a beautiful summer day!
Several years ago Josh and I spent a few weeks traveling around the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington. It was such an amazing place! In particular I loved the Hoh Rain Forest and the beaches – vast, wide, wild.
The thing that amazes me about the northern Pacific beaches, ones in Oregon and Washington – as well as into Canada – are the sea stacks. They are tall rocks, worn away by wind and wave, but they are not barren. Pine trees grow on them – some have more, some have less. I think it would be a wonderful thing to live on one, in a warm cave (with running water and few other things!), to be at one with the sounds of the world . . .
More pen and color. This time I tried to have a more delicate touch with color. I inked in most of the drawing with a fine Micron pen, added color – mostly cool – and then drew more lines and dots with a thicker pen to outline and add textures. The sky was done after wetting the paper and dropping in color.
Awhile ago I decided to try my hand at sashiko, a traditional Japanese embroidery used for both practical and artistic reasons. Originally it was used to quilt layers of cloth together, old clothes to make new ones. Patches were pieced onto already patched clothing. Today it is hard to imagine that clothing had to last generations, but this art form was for practical reasons. The artistry of it – the creation of patterns – shows the fact that, despite hardship and poverty, the need to express and create, to add beauty to the world, exists at many levels.
Today, we don’t patch clothes like that, to make them last for ages. We don’t need to for the most part. Instead, we call it “visible mending” and use it to enhance our clothes or show off our skills. It is a tradition that is now becoming a fabric art, much as quilting. However, these stitches are made by hand (although Babylock does have a machine which mimics hand sewn sashiko) and add character to jeans or old denim, or are used as a way to enhance something, such a purse or towel or whatever.
I bought sashiko thread, needles, a palm thimble specific for sashiko, and from there watched a few videos. I have some denim that I am cutting up to practice on. My stitches are uneven and I am trying to find a rhythm first in creating a running stitch. It is far harder than you think. So, first, the rhythm and comfort with the stitches.
Above is my first attempt. I just drew straight lines by hand, but later got out my pica stick and used it. Loops are left so that the fabric does not pucker as the rows are stitched, and as each row is done, I attempted to straighten and flatten out the fabric – a running stitch is great for gathering!
Above is my second attempt. More running stitches, but I tried different ways to begin and end rows. The loops prove to be important is not getting puckers – I got rid of a few with a hot iron, but you can see at the bottom a pucker across the left side.
Securing stitches is important. I tried different ways – many involve stitching over other stitches. I am still exploring that element – I want to figure things out on my own!
Above is the reverse of each of these samplers. The one on the left is the first; the one on the right is the second. The second one is neater as i carefully used a Chaco chalk pen to mark lines as I moved along.
Currently I intend to stick to straight lines and figure out how to connect them in different ways to make patterns. Tradition holds many patterns to be explored – many straight, geometric, circular, a combination of both, and many can become pictorial if you desire. Not all are done in a running stitch is my guess as I have seen some designs with completely solid lines of thread – backstitch or a running stitch then redone in between and in the reverse direction with another running stitch?
Besides doves and finches at the feeders, we have gotten squirrels and hawks and hummingbirds. It can be noisy or silent, the soft coo of a dove, and just funny to watch the finches jockeying for position to get to the seed. Beep! Beep! Beep!
My sister lives outside Durango, CO, on 40 acres of high desert. Scrub oak, cacti, deer, and all sorts of things roam about. Today she sent some photos of the flowers in bloom around her place. Some prickly pears were in bloom, so here is the photo she took.
The plants in her area are similar to the ones here in California where we live. There are hillsides covered with prickly pear cacti out here, and as our climate is warmer, they bloom earlier than in Colorado at 8000 feet. This is my painting of her photo.
I outlined the big cactus plant on the left with ink and then painted it. The others I did with direct watercolor. Combining outlines with free form painting is rather fun, and a good way to continue practicing. I think the outlines made for a more successful cactus but not having outlines also makes it very important to look at shape and value. Practicing both in the same painting is rather an interesting process.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 