When Joe and I drove four hours away to see the grandchildren in ballet recitals, I put on a British mystery CD for us to listen to and I stitched away while Joe drove through the heavy rain. Ellen had showed me her pattern for a multi-colored Sashiko piece and how to braid Sashiko embroidery thread to make it easy to pull out a single color to work with. Debbie said Erika Wilson also taught about braiding the thread.
(Click to enlarge the photos)
This piece is about 12" x 12." It is fun to have something one can finish. I bought a quarter yard of several deep colors from green to red and purple to create some Sashiko coasters or little sachet bags using plain white or off-white Sashiko embroidery thread...a modest task only for the road. I got this idea at The City Quilter!
I also found this fine panel to make something for the children. Maybe I could add batting and a backing and the girls could do their own hand quilting if they felt comfortable doing so. I came to the conclusion on this trip, that I should make up some SMALL projects ahead of time for them to play with. Usually they want to create something enormous like a quilt from scratch for brother David; and that is not realistic. Hannah says she is ready to deal with her Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine.
