Saturday 25 September 2010

Japanese Embroidery

Every week at the school where I teach we have a "calm space". A period of time where students can choose to go to Eucharist, read a book, draw or in my case embroider.



Having sat on this project for too long, I decided to take some embroidery in with me to my Year 7 class to show them how easy it really is. A while back I bought a few yards of Kona Cotton in Indigo rather than traditional Japanese indigo which is a bit more expensive. I enlarged the designs from the book I had and traced them onto the fabric using the Clover tracing paper on the advice of another embroiderer from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild.



The pieces are quite large and simple to do. I have used a traditional Japanese cotton although I have a bobbin of Perle sitting there if it doesn't turn out the way I want it to. But i am quite happy with the result so far. The designs are from this book a lovely inspirational book given to me by my friend Beky from Pivx.



And I am not sure if my pieces will end up a pillow or a quilt, but here is a bit of inspiration of what it could become. I don't normally work with blues, so I am tempted to pair it with a nice mustard or burgundy.



Here is another finished piece by another Melbourne quilter.



Have you done any Japanese Embroidery?

5 comments:

Adele said...

Beautiful stitches. How fantastic to show the kids at school, great idea!!

Clair said...

That embroidery is really quite impressive! So how many students had a go?

Karen said...

I bought a little sashiko pack a few months ago, I really should have a go at that soon! Then I just have to decide what to do with the square once I've sewn it.

I do like the idea of doing smaller squares and working them into a quilt though, so maybe that's another project I can get around to one day ;)

Sharon~Two Bits Patches said...

Our quilt group is working on Japanese themes this year. I've done two sashikos, I bought the fabric with the pattern already printed. It's very relaxing and not too hard - good for holidays!

Leanne said...

Thanks for the tip about the clover tracing paper. I've been looking at doing some more Japanese style embroidery but was a bit stumped on getting the patterns traced out on the dark fabrics. The only one I have completed so far was a pre-printed panel.