February reveal: "Sashiko sample"

Sashiko Quilt Journal

This picture doesn't do it justice because of the flash. It is deep black and there isn't any difference in black between the border and the center, therefore the white seems to 'float'.

For my February journal quilt I decided to explore Sashiko, the traditional Japanese style of decorative quilting. I bought a book called Sashiko some months ago and I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the book was about machine quilting and not the traditional hand quilting, since hand quilting gives me neck and shoulder pain. Now, I understand completely that the seize of the journal quilt defeats a bit the style and purpose of sashiko quilting which consists of larger stitches, thicker thread and large patterns but decided to go ahead anyway.

The nice thing of the patterns given in the book is that she breaks down the pattern in continious lines going horizontal, vertical or diagonal and they are marked by different colors. By sewing the lines, gradually the pattern will appear. I decided to go for straight lines so I could use my walking foot, because curves with free motion would be to difficult in this small dimension.

I have a lot of books about techniques but seldom have the patience to read through the instructions and in general come up with my 'own' technique (read: short cuts LOL).
Her way is to make copies and draw over them with transfer pencils. After that you iron it on a tear away stabilazor. Since that seemed too much work for me I decided to trace the pattern on a thin foundation (dyper inlay) and pin that on the wrong side of the fabric. Next time I would use a coloured pen to see better the lines while sewing.


I put the thicker white machine thread in the bobbin so it would show on top. And I put black on top and put the tension in a way that it would show on top too and create the effect of an 'interupted' hand stitch.

I don't like to finish off (don't know the english word) a thread often so I let space between the different patterns to go out en re-enter the frame in a continious way. After I added the batting and backing I covered this space with black strips. In reality you see barely these strips, in the picture they're more visible.

I intended to border it with lace, but that was to overpowering in this small seize so I used a black fabric with large flower prints and a binding with smaller flower prints. Like I said the black is much deeper than in the picture.

I'm happy with my journal piece. It really opened my eyes that you can do many intricate and interesting quilting patterns with a walking foot and continious straight lines. I will try the curved ones in the near future.