sashiko and other stitching

Yesterday morning, we went to Yuza Sashiko Guild's Friday meeting at Yuza's community centre. It is always very interesting to see works in progress but also finished and nearly finished pieces. I love these maekake aprons with a contemporary arrangement of traditional and modern patterns on each one - every apron is unique! I think these could be a good project when the Loch Lomond Sashiko Guild first year group get back together. By the way, the Loch Lomond Quilt Studio is running my course again this autumn and winter - please check their website for more information.

This is a good tip for patterns that need to go across the side seams - assemble these first -

We saw several large new patchwork and sashiko quilts in progress. I love this design, with cute minka farmhouses and farmer's outfits mixed with sashiko

A leaf design sketched in freehand above the minka -

Keiko Ishikawa was starting a bag combining a piece of fabric from the African Fabric Shop in the UK with traditional aizome cloth. She is going to use hand dyed natural indigo threads her sister made and a dark brown thread.

Koto Domon is working in red and cream, a colour combination I like very much.

This boy's quilt has quirky characters and sports motifs as well as some more traditional designs in applique. Anpan man and sashiko!

Reiko Domon uses every spare moment at home to stitch a little more sashiko...

At the meeting, Emily wanted to try sashiko again, so I showed her how to begin marking and stitching komezashi (rice stitch).

Everyone else had a very productive morning, but I didn't really stitch anything!

We arrived in Tokyo early yesterday afternoon and I got most of the fabric buying out of the way before we headed off to Asakusa and the Ryokan Shigestsu where we are staying for the remainder of our trip. The Kaminarimon (above) is one of the places you just have to get a photo if you come to Asakusa.

Today we went to the Japan Folk Crafts Museum via Shibuya station - Shibuya crossing is above. Although the museum website gives information about how to get there, it didn't mention that the Keio Inokashira metro line runs express ('rapid'?) and local trains, so we managed to board an express that overshot the station where we were supposed to get off. But once we got the right train, it was easy enough to find.

No photos allowed inside the museum unfortunately. There was an exhibition of Kantha and Sashiko/Kogin pieces, so it was a shame there wasn't a catalogue, although I picked up a small booklet featuring some pieces (in black and white) and I already have many illustrated in other books.

The museum was much smaller than I expected. The building was beautiful - Japanese tradition meets the Arts and Crafts movement. The collection was founded by Soetsu Yanagi in the early C20th. The displays were very much of the objects in glass cases with small (Japanese only) labels and I imagine this is how pieces have always been shown here. I would have to say that the Amuse Museum in Asakusa has a more interesting and informative display of koginzashi. Certainly, the mingeikan has some very old pieces of Kogin, Nanbu Hishizashi and Sashiko, but the general feeling in the exhibition was that it was rather staid and lifeless. I think we have been spoiled on our trip by seeing Koginzashi and sashiko as living and evolving traditions, as well as some excellent private collections of work. The same can be said for the ceramics and lacquerware collections. The Serizawa exhibition mentioned on the museum's facebook page is actually at Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, but as that is only 16 minutes by underground from here, I think we should go to see that too.

In the afternoon, we went to Harajuku. Yoyogi Park has been closed due to the first dengue fever outbreak in Japan in seventy years, so we kept away from the park side and headed for the shops. There were a few people out in their finest weekend fashions, but mostly it was full of high school girls shopping.

Looking at cute stuff - seifuku (old style school uniform) outfit.

Tonight we just had a stroll around the Sensoji temple at Asakusa before dinner.

More exploring tomorrow, and hopefully going to the Serizawa exhibition. The Amuse Museum is closed Mondays, so that is the plan for Tuesday, among other things.

We had a walk to Kappabashi-dori this morning, so Emily could see if there were any suitable knives for her taxidermy. The knives there are very good quality - we bought Damascus steel steak knives last time we were here (not for us!) - and some of the professional chefs' knives are very expensive. There are also all the different sharpening stones... So we were just looking. Here's Emily posing with the Kappa statue (Kappabashi means Kappa bridge).

I picked up some more of the higher priced 'rainbow stripe' tsumugi I got in May, although I couldn't get exactly the same one, and a couple of tenugui towels (stencilled cotton, not fluffy) for myself - I'll use those in a quilt.

This afternoon Emily was really tired (I think jet lag is catching up again), so I went on my own to Takashimaya, one of Tokyo's grandest and oldest department stores. I knew about the Serizawa exhibition, but not that they were also having a special mingei (traditional Japanese crafts) promotion event to tie in with it. Approaching from the Ginza subway line, the pillars were decorated with advertising banners for both events.

Needless to say, this was just my kind of event! There were high quality products from all over Japan - some very expensive but others very good value for money. I bought some lovely items of Hakone Yosegi parquetry, including my very first 'secret' puzzle box, which opens with seven moves. I'll post photos of these when I get home, as I don't want to spoil the pretty wrapping yet.

The Serizawa exhibition was wonderful! I felt it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed, but if you google his full name, you will be able to see some images of his work. He worked primarily in stencil techniques, combining traditional katazome with influences from Okinawan bingata, but all infused with his personal unique style. His work was shown alongside some of his inspirations, including a beautiful sandy coloured sashiko jacket (I sketched the design), African carvings and Asian textiles.

This department store is full of big name designer brands, not the kind of thing I shop for here at all, but the window displays were full of the coming season with a very autumnal feeling. It was my first visit to Takashimaya and I was impressed with the attention to quality and detail in the store - and I noticed how people on the Ginza line were looking at my three Takashimaya shopping bags on the way back!

On Saturday, I taught my 'Introduction to Shonai Sashiko' at the Peacock and the Tortoise in Perth. Lots of lovely sashiko samples were made by the students. The shop has a well-lit, comfortable workroom that's just right for sashiko. I'll be teaching there again on December 5th, when our workshop will be 'Sashiko Furoshiki' - see link for some of my previous workshops.

Apart from his trip to Dyffryn Clwyd Quilters' 10th anniversary trading day the previous weekend, Glyn has been getting on with more summerhouse jobs while I was in Japan. The biggest job has been installing the gothic window into the back wall. He trimmed it with aluminium strip, to shed rainwater away from the window, and sealed around it with bitumen paint (a bitumen seal will be added too). The roof overhang on the back of the summerhouse is only 6in, as any deeper would mean we couldn't easily get onto the roof, and it is very sheltered from the weather by the high fence. A narrow harwood sill will go at the bottom.

The bottom of the walls has been designed to push outwards slightly, to help shed water away from the concrete base slab. It also gives the walls an elegant shape but we have to allow for it when making things like the door frame and adding the corner capping. We got this shape by having one row of shingles under the Tyvek wrap and having a double row on top of that - this is the first top row. The next one will overhang this by about 10mm at the bottom, so water can't run back under the shingles. The cut out notch is for the main power cable and will be covered with the next row of shingles.

Glyn cut back the slate tile bearers at the front while I was away and added bitumen strip to the front step yesterday. The finished front step will be aluminium checker plate, so it will wear OK.

Cutting the door frame to size.

That Japanese dōzuki saw has been used so much! Luckily I got two extra blades when I bought it in Yamagata city. Unlike the more traditional saws, this one has replaceable blades.

This week, we'll add more shingles in the evening, but at the weekend it is the Scottish Quilt Championships so I'll be busy with that.

I'll be at the Scottish Quilt Championships at Edinburgh from next Friday to Sunday, where I'll be demoing sashiko and teaching a one hour workshop every morning - click links for more details.

I won't have all the fabrics above with me, as I'm there as a demonstrator rather than a trader, but I wll be bringing some of the striped tsumugi cottons, blue and white yukata cottons, Japanese fabric fat quarters and lots of lovely new sashiko threads I bought in Japan, plus sashiko needles, marking pens etc. I will also have these - ready made Japanese noren door curtains, in cotton that is ideal for sashiko. I spotted them for sale at Yamadera a few weeks ago, in deep blue, chartreuse/straw yellow and terracotta, at such a good price they will retail at just £20 each (that's a lot of sashiko fabric for your money). They have a slight shading effect, getting a little lighter towards the top. I have several of each and plan to use one of the yellow ones for a stitching demo at the show. If you want me to keep a particular colour for you, let me know.

I should also have some copies of 'The 1718 Coverlet', 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' and 'Quilt Essentials: Japanese Style', but as these are arriving at the showground on Friday, I may not have them until after lunchtime!

The Shonai and Yuza Sashiko course we ran at The Studio, Loch Lomond, starts again tomorrow - 5th October. This will be the same course I ran last year and earlier this year, i.e. for beginners. Some of the samplers made by students on the course are shown above, at Yuza Sashiko Guild's exhibition at the Sanno Club, Sakata city, Japan, and below at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in May.

Here's Rhona's quilt in progress -

These are just some of the sashiko patterns you can learn on the course.

Interested? We have space for a few more stitchers. Please contact The Studio - click here for info.

My demo stand at the Scottish Quilt Championships turned out to be next to a window this time, so I left the curtains open to get some daylight onto the stand. It made stitching sashiko much easier to see. The table cover quilt is the same one we used at Festival of Quilts and is a late twentieth century Japanese made piece - I don't know who made it, but I like the fabric combination. I thought my 'Fish and Chips' cat with the sashiko tiles in the background hadn't been out much lately, so I featured that. 'Time and Again' will be in Japan until January, along with 'Maru', so I chose different quilts this time. I'm sorry I couldn't get hold of any copies of 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' for this show, but visitors enjoyed seeing the taupe sampler. As the stand was a bit wider than usual, I could set it up so people could get quite close to the quilt behind me.

Sometimes the sunshine was a bit strong through the window!

I was judging at this show and chose Gretchen Danckwardt's theme category entry as my Judge's Choice. It was a very nicely arranged piece with lots of vintage fabric and buttons - paper pieced hexagons too - with subtle shading but without relying on overly coordinated fabrics. Click on the photo and use the + to zoom in for more detail. The overall colour effect really twinkles, appropriately as the theme was 'Quilted Jewels'. There were only five entries though. I hope we get more for next year, when the theme is 'Jelly Roll Fun'.

Glyn photographed a few of the quilts that he liked on Sunday afternoon and luckily we have similar tastes, as I didn't get a chance to get round with the camera at all. 'Untitled' by Lesley Davies was a strong image inspired by WWI. The poppies are raw edge applique.

'Callanish Stones' by Jean Boath used machine stitching to build up the texture of the stones, over a photographic image.

Stephanie Parker's 'Cosmos' would have been my Judge's Choice if it had been in the competition. It shows the high standard of design and needlecraft in the invited exhibitions. The planets were amazing - they are all embellished/felted.

I loved this piece but didn't find out who made it. Can anyone tell me please?

Emma Galbraith's 'Off the Map' was stunning - a real statement piece.

This is a favourite view - Lindisfarne Castle. Unfortunately I forgot to note the maker's name.

Kay Bell won Best in Show with '1514 aka The Horse'. Sorry I don't have a better photo - I borrowed this one. I think she also got the longarm quilting award for another piece? Although I was part of the judging team, I can't remember which quilt got every award - judging is done on a points system with no conferring, so we don't know which quilts have won until the rosettes go up. You can see more of Kay's work on her website here. She also has a longarm quilting service - I must ask her to do a quilt for me sometime.

Surprisingly, there were only forty six quilts in the competitive categories this year, which was very low. We need more entries please! You can download entry forms from the Grosvenor Shows website here.

Tonight's talk (6th October) and workshop (7th October) with Paisley Patchers has been cancelled by the group, not by me. It seems that the group did not receive the booking forms I sent back earlier in the year, but didn't tell me about this until after I'd sent an e mail on 29th September, checking details for the booking. Despite sending me a friendly e mail on 30th September confirming that all was going ahead and giving me details of my overnight accommodation (an e mail that wasn't flagged as high priority or apparently needing a very rapid reply), by 2nd October they had decided to cancel, before I had a reasonable chance to reply to their e mail (due to the start of my Loch Lomond sashiko course), citing my non reply to their e mail of 30th September as the reason. It seems the group are sticking with this cancellation, although I e mailed them about it immediately. I'm sorry that some quilters will be disappointed about the workshop - I met some of the group at the Scottish Quilt Championships - but the decision to cancel was made by your group, not me!

(BTW, I have no idea why the formatting for this post has ended up all over the place - Blogger doesn't want to let me alter it either).

Re contacting me, sometimes I can't access my e mail because I'm away teaching or simply not at the keyboard. I know it may seem like I've got internet access all the time, but I don't use a smartphone and can only access my e mails when I've got my laptop. Also, even if there's wifi available, I don't use my laptop while I'm teaching other groups, or (as on Wednesday evening) attending a class myself. I might need to gather some further information or check other details before replying too. Please bear this in mind if I don't reply immediately (or in the early hours of the morning, as someone else seemed to expect me to do recently too).

We got busy on Sunday, nailing and painting the cedar shingles on the summerhouse.

There's four layers of shingles at the bottom edge, before we started to go up the wall - one under the Tyvek, then another three on top, pushing out the bottom of the wall into a slight curve, to shed water away from the foundation slab (if any rain gets on the walls much, with the large overhang at the eaves and front). Some of these were cut a little shorter for a more gradual line and/or stepped at the bottom so water can't run back under them.

The shingles were first used on a chalet bungalow built in 1968 and we salvaged them when it was demolished a couple of years ago. Over the years, they've been treated with various timber products and some got a bit sooty, so we had a two stage cleaning process going, first with a brush, then a scraper. We're turning them over and using the backs instead of the already exposed side, so any deeply weathered grooves in the wood are turned to the inside. They should wear a bit longer that way.

As Glyn nailed the shingles in place, I followed round with the paint - Cuprinol 'Garden Shades'. I don't want them to look too even or flat, so I'm just giving them one coat. In theory, cedar doesn't really need painting, but the weathering on the shingles makes them look a bit messy otherwise.

I'm glad we left a good gap behind the summerhouse, both for maintenance and to keep it away from the back fence. It makes working round the back much less of a squeeze. When we rebuild the garden shed, we'll do the same.

More cleaning. We bought a set of small metal scrapers in Lidl a few weeks ago and they have turned out to be the perfect tool for the job!

The corners will be covered with a UPVC 'L' section, but we are taking the shingles right up to the corners and shaping them properly for a snug fit. It will be easier to fit the UPVC to this if the corners are done neatly.

The cedar is easy to cut with the Japanese saw.

More cleaning!

More painting!

We've used a string line to keep the shingles level around the building, but moved them up and down slightly on that line, to avoid having hard horizontal lines running around the summerhouse. We've also varied the width of the shingles from about 14in wide to as little as 3in.

Sometimes it is easier to trim the corner shingle in situ if there is just a little to remove, or even do it with a craft knife, as the cedar splits quite easily. It is a strange wood to work with, because it isn't too hard, splits along the grain very easily yet is very weather resistant.

We kept going until around 7.30 p.m., when it was getting a bit too dark to see what we were doing. I think we've made a good start. Cladding seemed to go slowly at first, I guess because of the multiple layers at the base of the wall, when it seemed like we weren't making much progress, but now it has started to move more quickly. I'm not sure how much work we'll get done this week, because wet and windy weather is forecast.

On Saturday, we managed to get to Frieda Oxenham's 52 Journal Quilts exhibition at Peebles, about ten minutes before it officially closed - we got held up due to flooding around Edinburgh. I'm glad we made it... Frieda's small works are like little gems. The piece in the top right of the photo above came home with us.

I forgot to take my camera, but you can see various posts from Frieda's blog here with images of the exhibition and there's also this video from when she showed a group around, so you can watch Frieda talking about her work. I'm sure she won't mind me borrowing a couple of pics from her blog too.

Scroll down this post for a slideshow of the works. Frieda often posts about her journal quilts in progress, with many detailed photos, so enjoy having a look through her blog.

Peebles turned out to be a lovely place with so many 'proper' shops i.e. not chain stores. We were hoping to get along to Horncliffe to see Berwick Quilters' exhibition as well, but after the delay in getting to Peebles, we realised we just weren't going to make it, so we spent the afternoon Christmas shopping instead. It was a lovely drive there too, with the autumn foliage looking wonderful all along the roadsides. Next time, I'll remember the camera!

The Quilt Museum at York held a private view for the current exhibitions on Friday evening. There are three exhibitions at the moment - 'Sign Here!', 'Patchwork and Quilting in Britain'and'The 1718 Silk Patchwork Coverlet'. The museum has launched some new souvenir items to mark the 1718 exhibition and there was a '1718' display in the shop, featuring the book.

Ceramicist Cathy Daniels, who makes dishes inspired by quilt blocks, has made a number of one off pieces to commemorate the 1718 exhibition, for sale at the museum.

Another museum exclusive are Oakshott fabric packs, available as fat quarters or eighths, selected in the 1718 colours, plus some half metre pieces.

No photography is allowed in the galleries, but of course the centrepiece of the 1718 exhibition is the original coverlet, displayed flat at one end of the Bailey Gallery -

The 1718 replica coverlet is displayed at the other end. It was great to be able to see them both together. There is a video slideshow of the high resolution photos taken for the book, so you can study the blocks in great detail and compare them with the replica's interpretation.

Maureen Poole's 'Cantata', made specially for the 1718 book, is on display next to the replica. I was surprised to see that they actually share some fabrics - a pale gold dobby weave. If you visit, see if you can spot the same fabric.

Another fascinating exhibit was a set of early eighteenth century patchwork chair covers, which showed the higher class silks of the day - brightly coloured silk brocades, much more expensive fabrics than those used in the 1718 coverlet. These chair seat covers had never been used and the papers are intact, from printed pamphlets and copybooks. The colours are still vivid and the silver metallic threads really sparkle. I'm sure someone said that these had been acquired for the Museum's collection. I don't have photos but I am sure we will be seeing images soon.

The signature quilt exhibition was very interesting and featured a large number of quilts on loan, as well as pieces from the Museum's collection. As well as for quilters, this exhibition could be a wonderful resource for family historians, as the signature quilts are very well documented, usually having the name of the organisation, often a chapel, and location on them.

On Saturday, we had the first of two '1718 Revisited' workshops. We explored making some of the blocks in patchwork and applique, dealing with fussy cutting stripes for diagonally quartered blocks, piecing bias edges, piecing mitred corners (all by machine), and various methods for applique, including the monogram block using Steam-a-Seam II, the heart block with freezer paper applique and the basics of needleturn applique - all modern techniques that weren't used in the original, but an alternative (and quicker) way to make the blocks than by mosaic patchwork. The quatrefoil fleur de lys blocks in the foreground in the first photo below, which are the two top corner blocks in the original, are my workshop samples. The bright and well equipped workshop is on the ground floor at the museum, next to the shop, and the computerised Brother sewing machines are provided, so you don't need to struggle bringing your own machine to the museum. The museum also provided the Steam-a-Seam and freezer paper, as each block only needs a very small amount of each.

We had fun playing around with different fabric combinations, especially with the directional fabrics and I'm looking forward to seeing more 1718 projects started at our second workshop on 5th November, when we are running the same workshop again. I think it would work well as a three day course too, with much more scope for making many more blocks, so I'll have to work on that.

I sometimes get questions about sashiko and other aspects of Japanese textiles by e mail. Today, Gerry Kortekaas from the Netherlands asked -

Can you tell me what boromono is exactly? Is it just like "our" quilts a 3-layered piece?

Is it put together like our quilts, or do the pieces also have rough edges? And is the quilting done in sashiko style, or in chikuchiku style?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is chikuchiku more colourfull and less refined than sashiko?

To me sashiko looks more refined, with delicate patterns and blocks. And chikuchiku looks more robust and all over, with less patterns, using only straight stitches and cross-stitches.

I thought it was easier to reply on my blog, so I could include photos. Click on any photo to see it full size. There are LOTS of links too - please click to follow them.

First, boromono. The word means 'rag thing' - boro means 'rag' and mono is 'thing'. They are more like the kind of utilitarian rag quilts that were used by farmworkers and hired hands in places like Wales and Australia (where they are called 'waggas') than nicely made quilts that were used for best. They can be all kinds of things - clothes as well as bedding.

The photos above and below are from The Amuse Museum in Asakusa, Toyko - please browse their website through that link. This fascinating and very accessible museum is the personal collection of Chuzaburo Tanaka. His book, 'Boro: Rags and Tatters from the far north of Japan', is available from Amazon.uk, Amazon com and Amazon jp, although they all seem rather overpriced. It was still on sale at the normal price in the museum shop, so if you want a copy, it may be worth contacting them to see if they could send it. The text is in Japanese and English, so there's plenty to read - not just eye candy.

He has collected many items from his home region, Tsugaru (nowadays Aomori Prefecture).

The museum has excellent information panels about boro. Not only the usual kinds of museum information, but Tanaka-san relays all the stories and personal feelings of people about boromono and fabric scraps. You get a real sense of how these scraps were treasured and used to create something special, with love.

Tabi...

Donja or yogi... (a quilt shaped like a kimono)

Not only does the collection have many boromono, but it also has the little bundles that were the raw materials, carefully piled up and tied with strips of cloth. These are the personal fabric stashes of the boromono makers.

These are links to some of my earlier posts on boromono and boro, and our visit to the Amuse Museum in April. The current special exhibition is also on the topic of boro, so you can read more about it here - I hope it is still on when we visit in January, as it will be a chance to see more bormono than are usually on display. The exhibition in London displayed boro as artworks, rather than with the more human touch, and also took them out of context.

Very simple sashiko is used to hold the layers of boro together, like the sashiko on this tebukuro (hand cover).

Sashiko is not physically delicate, although it may look so - it is one of the toughest stitching techniques around. Also, whether or not it looks delicate depends on what kind of sashiko you are looking at. Yuza or Shonai sashiko has very dense stitching. These are old work jackets displayed at Yuza Sashiko and Peaceful Hearts Quilt Group's exhibition in 2006 - sorihikihappi (sledge pulling jackets).

For contemporary work by Yuza Sashiko Guild, follow this link. There are photos of their most recent exhibition last month in these blog posts.

Chikuchiku is more colourful and more random than hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) of the kind shown above, where neatness and even stitching are highly prized. I wrote about chikuchiku on an earlier blog post here. The name is onomatopoeic and is the sound of the needle clicking through the fabric - it also seems to describe the way the fabric is pleated onto the needle very well. It is also known as crazy sashiko. Junko Maeda (not to be confused with the fashion designer of the same name) and Ginka Niigata ('Silver flower of Niigata') aka Akiko Ike are both known for chikuchiku. Maeda-san recently exhibited in the USA and some of her work shows the influence of Korean pojagi, as well as sashiko and boromono. Ike-san blogs about chikuchiku and other crafty things - she is the silver haired lady on the right in the first photo. She exhibited at Pour L'amour du Fil in Nantes in April - there are photos of her exhibition on Minick and Simpson's blog, there was an article about her in Quiltmania issue 100 (still available as a back issue), and photos here. Coincidentally, a friend in Japan visited her only a couple of days ago, so I'm looking forward to hearing about Ike-san's latest projects. I would love to meet her and study with her - if 'study' is the right word! Chikuchiku is very playful.

I hope that's answered the questions. Have fun following all the links!

Jen and Cyn from Stitch Craft Create have given 'The 1718 Coverlet' book a great online review - click the link above to watch (from about half way through the clip. Thanks very much!

We've been pushing along with the cedar shingles as the weather and increasingly early evenings are allowing. Now we are up to the window sills, there have been some small but important finishing off jobs to do, like sealing around the gothic window with bitumen tape - it looks like lead flashing. Glyn warmed the tape with a heat gun for a good seal and shaped around the top of the window with short pieces of tape. Fiddly but worth it. The shingles will go right up to the metal weather strip he made out of aluminium section - Homebase had reduced all their 1 metre metal strips to £1 in the summer sale. Good for us. It gives a little extra rain protection around the window.

The rows of shingles are starting to build up nicely.

This is a good opportunity to use up shingles with uneven or damaged top edges, cutting them down to fit under the windows.

We bought hardwood sills to go at the bottom of the windows and will add them soon, probably doing all the windows in one go. As the bottom of the gothic window is a lot lower than the two small side windows, it will have to wait.

The shingles immediately on either side of the window sills have been cut into L and reverse L shapes. Because the cedar splits very easily, the cut across the grain has to be done first.

It takes Glyn longer to scrape down and nail on the shingles than it does for me to do the initial cleaning (with a stiff nylonbrush) and follow up with the paint, so on Saturday and Sunday I did some batch cooking for the freezer in between summerhouse work - bolognese, curry and casserole. Sunday brunch was a 'Mediterranean feast' - olives, tomatoes and felafel, with minted lamb, couscous and aubergine - made with the leftovers from Saturday's dinner (there was way too much lamb!) So we have been eating well while working.

On Sunday, I started work on the onigawara roof tiles for the ends of the roof ridge. I looked at tiles when I was in Yuza, but they are very large and heavy items to bring back, in ceramic. The metal kind would have been OK, but they aren't used much in Shonai it seems. There's more about onigawara on this earlier blog post. I liked this one I saw on Yahoo! Japan Auctions, made in plastic, and used it as the inspiration for my smaller and simplified design.

I needed a large 'rolling pin' to make the clay slabs, so Glyn smoothed off the edges from an offcut of scaffolding pole.

The paper design. I only have one copy and ended up having to back it with rows of parcel tape to stop the clay making it too wet.

I'm using a gritty sculpture clay from Scarva - Earthstone Professional Black Textured. The tiles will go black when fired and I won't be glazing them. The slab is rolled to approx 1cm thick. I had thought about sculpting a model, making a plaster mould and slipcasting them, but since we only need two it seemed just as easy to sculpt each one individually, working with a combination of slabs and coil building.

I couldn't find any of my sculpting tools so improvised with a table knife. The slabs are drying to leather hardness in between slabs of plasterboard before I start building up the backs and bases. The front decoration will be done last. These are my main project for the current pottery evening class.

Back to the shingles. Several still have their 'MADE IN CANADA' stamp on the back.

Shame these are all being painted over.

This was just before our stopping point yesterday - up to sill level on the side windows. It seems to be going quickly now.

We've been lucky with the weather this weekend, as it hasn't been as wet or as windy as the weather forecast predicted.

Yesterday we went to New Lanark for the first time. Debbie was up from Wales visiting her family in Glasgow and it was the ideal spot to meet up. The eighteenth century former cotton mills have been converted to various uses, including exhibition spaces, and at the moment there are two exhibitions - quilts from Riverside Quilters, which continues until November 1st, and The Great Tapestry of Scotland, showing until November 23rd (more about that in my next post)

Riverside Quilters are a group who have met through doing quilt retreats at New Lanark and were asked if they would like to show their work. There was a variety of different styles and designs on show. This panel uses designs from my 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' kamon crests.

I spotted this Euro Japan Links design by Misako Kamogawa - rather familiar because I wrote the pattern for it!

This is the lovely colourwash quilt that appeared in the first photo.

My favourites were some of the smaller pieces - sadly neither the church nor the plaid houses were for sale.

This piece was started in a workshop with Pat Archibald.

Around the exhibition.

There was also an interesting antique coverlet and quilt on show. The coverlet has some lovely turkey red prints in it. The triangle square arrangements for the 'twist' border are unusual.

It was obviously never intended to be backed or quilted, as each raw edge was carefully whip stitched.

The quilt had diagonal lines of crossed squares, similar to some Cumbrian quilts I've seen, and was quilted in 'waves' or zigzags.

A simple but effective design.

The brown and black prints hadn't survived well - most likely there was iron in the dye mordants.

It had a traditional 'knife edge' i.e. no binding and the edges turned in.

A laundry mark on the back?

The quilting shows up better on the plain back.

Beside the River Clyde, source of the mills' power.

A yarn installation running through metal eyes on the way to the mills' gift shop.

The mill shops included a wool shop, where they sell wool spun at one of the mills. Glyn spotted some large hanks in a basket, rather reasonably priced for 90% wool, 10% silk blends, so I've got another jumper to knit - this one will feature cables for the main design.

After lunch, we saw the Great Tapestry of Scotland - but that deserves a whole post of its own!

After lunch at the on site restaurant, we went to see The Great Tapestry of Scotland. Of course, strictly speaking it is a crewel work embroidery rather than a tapestry, but not dissimilar to the techniques used for the Bayeux Tapestry, but with far more variety in the stitching. You can read all about it and see a slide show of ALL the panels on the website. Photography was allowed, without flash, so here are are some of the panels I liked the most.

The panels were displayed on stands like quilt stands in two rooms. Visitors tended to bottleneck in the first section, and apparently the best time to go is at 10 a.m., before it gets too crowded. I went back to take photos of the first section towards the end of the afternoon.

The sections dealing with prehistoric and medieval Scotland were some of the most beautiful, but then these periods gave designer Andrew Crummy plenty of strong images to work with.

Every section was accompanied by an information panel which listed the stitchers. The group sizes ranged from just one or two to over a dozen. Unfortunately visitors sometimes seemed to be getting more absorbed in reading the panels than looking at the tapestry.

Apparently, the groups were given a lot of leeway in their choice of stitches. Some panels have a wide variety of different stitches and textures, others not so many.

Unfortunately the first room didn't have any blinds on the windows, and the strong sunlight pouring in sometimes made it difficult to see the tapestry well. This constant exposure to daylight can't be doing the tapestry much good at the moment and I hope it doesn't start to cause any fading damage. The second room had blackout blinds.

Visitors could add a stitch to an extra panel which will be added to the end of the tapestry and names are being recorded.

This was one of my favourite panels - the battle of Dunnichen, thought to be the events depicted on the Aberlemno Stones.

"The Coming of the Vikings' was another stunning design. As with some of the other panels, the stitches used on the boat sections were reminiscent of some hitomezashi patterns. Sashiko could be stitched in a similar way.

On the whole, the more dramatic and often violent incidents from early and medieval history, combined with the decorative art of the period, made for more interesting panels than many of the post-Restoration history. "Fingal's Cave" was one of the better C19th themed panels.

Paisley designs lent themselves to a decorative treatment.

"Herring Girls" and the panels about Shetland and Fair Isle Knitting were amond the narrower panels in the tapestry and had interesting designs, especially the way the knitting was stitched.

"James Watt and the Steam Engine" and the panel about Edinburgh's new town were two of the more interesting designs about the C18th subjects.

On the whole, it seemed the more modern panels gave the artist less to work with in terms of images, although "Dolly the Sheep" made good use of DNA diagrams.

There were two double width panels, one at the beginning and another towards the end. The variety of stitches used to suggest the sea in this panel were varied.

If you are planning to visit, it takes at least two hours to get round the panels and see everything. The exhibition at New Lanark is on until 23rd November. There are plans for the tapestry to have a permanent home in the Borders. There's also a hardback book with all the panels and a paperback about the making of the tapestry.

We are bringing World Textile Day to the South West for the first time on Saturday - to Saltford, near Bristol. All the info is on the main World Textile Day website - click here.

As it is our first time, I can't show you photos of the venue yet, but here are photos of us at previous World Textile days and other trading days...

I've got a few of these 'Tairyobata' (great catch flag panels) that I brought back from the last trip and lots of fat quarters.

Plus we have lots of lovely Japanese silks, wools and cottons on the bolt, sashiko threads etc.

I love using our Japanese fabrics with African fabrics from the African Fabric Shop...

... like this quilt top combining a cotton yukata print (sunflowers) with African batiks.

I've got some books for sale, including the 1718 coverlet book.

Here's a peek at some of the current silk and wool bolts - just a handful of the dozens already packed in the van, including a big selection of silks in beautiful autumnal colours.

We're looking forward to a fun weekend and hope to meet lots of textile fans on Saturday.

We had a great time down in the south west for World Textile Day at Saltford near Bristol on Saturday. Here's a few photos taken during quiet moments. The one above was taken by Joan Fisher while we were setting up.

Diane Hawkins brought her version of the Shimacho quilt from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' - we had the original one hanging on our stand. Love the fabrics she's used for this.

One of my furoshiki was used as a banner.

I'll post more photos when I get some from Bob. Time to turn in now after a long drive back to Scotland... We met so many lovely textile enthusiasts on Saturday and look forward to doing it all again next year!

We had to drive down towards Bristol on Thursday night so we could set up World Textile Day on Friday afternoon, so when I saw that the Welsh Quilt Centre's 2014 exhibition ' Early to Bed' was closing on Saturday 1st November, we changed our plans and drove all the way down to Swansea so we could go over to Lampeter on Friday morning. Leaving Perth at exactly 4.30p.m. it took us ten hours... On Friday morning, the drive through Carmarthenshire was full of autumn colours. It isn't a quick drive at the end of the journey after Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin) but the road winds through some beautiful villages. It was a bright, warm day too - hard to believe it was the end of October. It was like summer.

The approach to Lampeter town.

It is a lovely town, with many interesting shops that we didn't have time to explore on this visit, and some with very colourful fronts - unfortunately the camera didn't focus in time for this one, with bright red and yellow.

The Welsh Quilt Centre is very easy to find - go over the roundabout -

- and look for the clock! It is the old town hall.

There is free on road parking in Lampeter, but the waiting time immediately outside the shops is a bit too short for an exhibition visit, so we parked further up the road.

The one detail I hadn't checked was the opening time - 11 a.m. - and we were too early. So we had to check out Calico Kate, which is practically next door. I'd heard it was good, but I didn't know just HOW good. There is room after room of fabrics, all themed so it is easy to find what you want, with lots of really good quality fabrics including Moda, Bali Batiks and Kona Bay. As well as a fantastic selection of quilt fabrics, they had an excellent choice of 140cm wide linen at just £10 per metre - perfect for sashiko. I bought a large piece for my next big project.

Glyn spotted the Welsh wools and flannels in the same room, so he got a red and black check for one of his kilts - did I mention that we have both joined a kilt making course? I'll post photos of our projects once we get started with them. He's holding the purplish grey linen I bought. The room to his right had some of the Moda ranges.

It was difficult to choose just a few things and Kate had some very unusual fabrics, trims and wools that were just the thing for some new projects we have planned (I'm doing all the knitting!) This room had the Kaffe Fassett/Rowan prints and weaves.

An hour later... Glyn with our goodies!

This is the front of the Welsh Quilt Centre. Photos of the exhibition will be in my next post - there's so many of them.

I didn't know if Jen Jones, founder of the Welsh Quilt Centre, would be there on Friday morning, but she was sitting behind the counter in the shop, so I showed her my version of the Dryslwyn quilt - read more about it here. I've got it tacked now but haven't started the quilting and was hoping the original just might be in the exhibition, but sadly for us, it was sold a long time ago. Jen said she knows who has it and we hope it might be loaned for a future exhibition. I wanted to know what the quilting was like on the original and she confirmed that it was very plain, so I think I will go ahead and quilt this in a very simple zigzag design inspired by the traditional 'waves' pattern, which is a geometric zigzag, rather than a curved design as might be expected. The shop was full of all kinds of interesting things, including bits and pieces of vintage fabrics, trims, books etc. I added a few pieces for one of my 1718 projects.

Upstairs, the quilts are displayed in the former courtroom of the old town hall. The ceiling must be twenty feet high, so it is possible to display pieces hanging in two tiers. The quilt at the top is another old favourite of mine, the red baskets quilt from the Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth.

This quilt, like Dryslwyn, is illustrated in Janet Rae's 'Quilts of the British Isles'. It was one of many quilts made from tailors's samples.

The abstract designs made by the repetition of simple shapes and the changes in colour and value gives these quilts an endless fascination for me - the regularity of the shape with the asymmetry of the colour and value. Often this abstract quality is more apparent in photos than when standing in front of the quilt, or when viewing the quilt from a distance. There was plenty of space to stand back and view the quilts from the other end of the room.

This is is from the quilt centre's website -

Starting with a thrifty culture of “mend and make-do”, the quilters of rural Wales unselfconsciously produced brilliant pieces of Folk Art. Using their innate and untrained artistry they would assemble pieces of fabric, often recycled, into lively compositions that could be balanced or quirky, classical or primitive. They might incorporate ancient symbols and images, or everyday items from their lives, chapel, house, animals or people they knew and over all this they quilted ancient patterns; echos from much earlier cultures.

Two of the tailors' sample quilts were stiched with red wool, which made a beautiful counterpoint to the more subdued fabrics.

I love the use of beds to display some of the quilts, something we have tried at Quiltfest in Llangollen, but never having quite as many beds.

What to look at next??

There was a big tub of handling samples too. Some of these pieces illustrated the 'boro' nature of scrap quilts, with layers of old fabrics inside.

The exhibitions continued into the hallway and adjacent rooms, with contemporary work by Janet Bolton and Sandie Lush. This quilt still on the frame was displayed at the top of the stairs.

Photography was allowed without flash and I took so many photos - I will put these in my next post, which will be very heavy on images. It was an inspiration to visit.

Yuza Sashiko Guild's Friday meeting

A few photos from Tokyo

Kappabashi-dori and the Keisuke Serizawa exhibition

Shonai Sashiko in Perth and a summerhouse update

Scottish Quilt Championships - this weekend

Loch Lomond Sashiko course running again

Last weekend at the Scottish Quilt Championships

Paisley Patchers - talk and workshop cancelled.

Summerhouse - shingles and painting

Frieda Oxenham's exhibition last weekend

1718 coverlet exhibition and first workshop

Sashiko, chikuchiku and boromono

The 1718 Coverlet - an online review

Summerhouse update - more shingles and making onigawara

New Lanark quilts and tapestry - Part 1

New Lanark - quilts and tapestry Part 2

World Textile Day South West on Saturday

World Textile Day South West

Calico Kate and the Welsh Quilt Centre - part 1

The Welsh Quilt Centre - part 2