Craft for the Car: Sashiko coasters

     Sashiko is meditative. Sashiko is satisfying. Like quilting, it puzzles my family and friends why I do it. Maybe I wanted something I thought the granddaughters could sew easily. Perhaps friends who want to craft, but say they cannot, could enjoy this. I do hope I develop good muscle memory to one day hand-quilt,  rather than machine stitch, a quilt. I always start with the most complicated patterns because they are more interesting to have, should I quit. I will pad, back and stitch these to the proper size for coasters, but they were so easy to handle while Joe drove the car.

      Sashiko kits are available online. I got mine at the New England Quilt Museum and the City Quilter. I bought the thread and needles, and that is all one needs. The blue fabric is marked with stitching guides that wash out. I kept poking myself as I loaded many stitches onto my needle so I bought some stick-on thimbles. After wearing one, I found I never stuck myself again. I find it easy to pull the thread through, but people also use wider rubber bands or finger protectors from the drug store to pull the loaded needles through the fabric. 

         

     When I first got interested in Sashiko, I bought books and tools to print my own designs on navy fabric. Ellen showed me the beauty of the colored threads and how to start and end without knots. There are preferred paths to follow when stitching, but it is not imperative. 

      

      I picked up 12" x 12" pillow forms at JoAnn's half price last week. Needle-pointing coasters and knitting are great travel crafts, but Sashiko coasters are a new one for me. Click to enlarge the photos to see mistakes that happen when you hit potholes or before one learns all the rules! In all honesty, I take out my stitches a lot so it may not be so easy for children. I believe perfection doesn't happen for me, even in easy tasks.

Snowy Day Play: a Hicks collaboration

    What a snow fall we have had. A good excuse to stay inside to craft. Look at the height of snow on our deck table!
     A few days ago, granddaughter asked me to make something for her like the bird journal quilt (see January "Feed the Birds" post). So I took the dog she finished embroidering and the dog I worked along with her (see Archive "Going to the Dogs" post) and put them on a "falling snow" fabric similar to the birds' with the thought of preserving the art on a single pillow. I cut out two squares of fabric to fit a pillow form. With pinking shears, following the fold crease left by the embroidery hoops, I cut out the dog circles. Then I fused (with Wonder Under) the dogs to the red for Hannah's piece and the dark navy for mine. I worked so fast I didn't realize my dog was sewn in maroon. Anyway, I put the two right sides together and added another piece to my side so the pillow could slip in and out, sewed all around, no need for a zipper. After turning back out, I further secured the dog rounds with white floss to match the snow, but am trying to think of a little addition in words or color to suggest the good time we had in snowy January 2011, a label, or a free-motion stitched sentence for this one pillow preserving our two pieces together. Please leave suggestions.

(click to enlarge)

(find the Valentine)