Sashiko Experiment

Sashiko has evolved from its humble beginnings as a form of darning to repair or add strength to worn clothing to an intricate pattern of stitchery. Sashiko is Japanese for “little stabs” that are taken to form a running stitch for creating simple pictures to intricate patterns. Sashiko is relaxing and very portable. A little done here and a little done there, and soon, you have enough blocks for yet another quilt.

After completing the quilt, Memories of Japan, (9/7/2013 post) I wanted to play some more with Sashiko blocks and searched for different patterns as I needed 30 different blocks for a black and taupe quilt that will use up some wonderful materials in my stash. I am repeating some of the blocks from, “Japanese Blocks to mix and match” by Susan Briscoe and found more patterns in “Quilting with Japanese Fabrics” by Kitty Pippen. I still needed more patterns. I came across some tattoos of Japanese symbols and thought it might be interesting to try adapting some of these to for a pattern for Sashiko.

I love dragons and had not seen them used a lot in Sashiko patterns so I played with one dragon tattoo and got this result.

There will be more Sashiko blocks to come.