Friday morning is when Yuza Sashiko Guild have their meeting at the town's community centre. I took these photos on my trip in November. Most of the group had been down to Yokohama for the quilt show and one of the big jobs for this meeting was getting all the sashiko pieces back to their makers. There was still plenty of time for chat and work on new projects though. I enjoyed myself very much!
Bags are always popular, and the traditional hitomezashi (one stitch) patterns are very hardwearing. Plus they look amazing of course!
Combined with traditional style fabrics, sashiko makes stunning bags.
Iron-on ('Vilene') interfacing on the back anchors the long threads between the stitches, making the sashiko even stronger.
Auditioning various sashiko pieces for a bag, with shibori and hand dyed cottons, among other fabrics.
Another popular sampler project are maekake, a traditional apron in 3 panels. Perfect for an interesting collection of sashiko pattern. Maekake also look just as good with jeans as with kimono.
These patterns include spirals as well as hitomezashi patterns. While Yuza Sashiko Guild is handing on traditional patterns to the future, they are also making new and interesting designs and working with traditional patterns in new ways. Yuza sashiko is continuing to evolve.
Many members of the group are now qualified as Yuza Sashiko Guild teachers. Here's Reiko Domon explaining some stitch pattern points.
Koto Domon showed me how to make the 'maccaron' purse pendants everyone was wearing at Yokohama - sorry the second photo is out of focus. I was fasctinated by these and it was really interesting to see how they were put together. Now I want to try making them.
Reiko sorting out the quilts that came back from Yokohama.
I made up some goody bags as presents, with Fabric Freedom shot cottons, and hand dyed threads and fabrics from Images of Egypt, so I'm looking forward to seeing some colourful accents in Yuza sashiko soon.
