I'm trying the other kind of Sashiko, hitomezashi, where you make straight lines of stitches and they intersect to form patterns. For this you need to draw out big huge grids on your fabric so your lines will be straight and even. (or, well, so you can atleast attempt, i mean practice, to get straight even stitches..) After drawing grids on two panels, my little chaco pencil was on its last leg. It was a little bit sad, but I'm happy I used up something I had instead of just letting it sit there or get lost and go to waste.
Today I'm working out of this book, Connecting Fabric Everyday , ISBN4-579-11116-8, which I grabbed in Tsutaya at Narita Airport just a few moments before getting on the plane home. There are some really beautiful pieces of patchwork with colorful sashiko, and patterns to make a hat, dress, blankets, pillows, and a cute-as-hell cafe apron..
Isn't this wonderful? Wouldn't you want to serve tea outside wearing it? Click to view the largest size over at flickr and check out the details. 
Of course when it comes to the stitches (and the whole pattern, actually), I'm kind of making things up as I go along. I've mentioned before that sashiko is hard and I'm no where near good at it. I'm still struggling, as a quilter, to not make my stitches as small as possible. I'm finding it very tough to make big stitches that are even and intersect nicely. Or well, I can get them to intersect, but then my lines aren't straight. Please, I beg you, do not click on this picture at flickr to see the details.
I'm almost done with the first of 3 panels. I like it, the colors are a little funky and just what I need right now. Of course when I held it up to see what it would look like as an apron, I noticed that I probably should have adjusted the measurements a bit more because my midsection is quite a few senchi (cm) larger than the smiling Japanese woman in the photo. Maybe I'll just remake the center panel.. I'm hoping to make the top one, but may switch to the bottom one to accomodate what I end up with after all my stitching is done.
Back to my chako pencil.. though it was sad to toss it, I was very happy to be able to pull out a new one from my still-not-unpacked box of recent Japanese goodness. Thank you Clover. Thank you Japan.
They met in a "patchwork classroom" which is a group of people that meet once a week in a community center to work on a hobby, led by an "instructor." These "classrooms" are quite popular among Tomakomai housewives it seems. In addition to the patchwork classroom, Mrs. K also went to 2 different English conversation classes and an aerobics class, though not all at the same time. I think she stopped going to the patchwork classroom after she got her instructor's certificate, but I remember going with her once when I was there before. There were about 15 women quilting around a long table and the instructor would come by and tell you how you were doing. I remember that Mrs. K didn't like the instructor because she was quite critical of everyone's work. This type of "classroom" is so different than the quilting classes and guild meetings I've been to since I started quilting in America. I recall that it didn't have the cheerful sharing atmosphere that nearly all quilting get-togethers have in the States (in my experience), but instead all of the "students" kind of feared the "instructor" and everyone was waaaay too modest and played down their ability and their quilts. Part of that is Japanese culture of course, but because I have a huge interest in women's social circles across cultures, I find it fascenating and it's one of the main reasons I'd love for Mrs. K to come hang out with some quilters in the States. American quilters are so appreciative of each other.* I'd like to share that with her (and Mrs. Ito of course, should she also decide to come). 
So as it turned out, Mr. K got called in to work that weekend and we found ourselves without a car once again. We called up Mrs. Ito and asked if we could come over and quilt for a while. We took the bus to her place and once we settled in, Mrs. K asked if Mrs. Ito would mind showing me all of her completed works. She said I'd be surprized. I was already surprized. You couldn't look in a single direction and not spot a quilt in Mrs. Ito's house. The floor mat in her front hall, the wall hanging in her genkan, a placemat on the side table.. and that was all before we got our shoes off. In the kitchen she had a huge floor mat made of 5" hexagons. She asked me to help with the quilts, what she pulled out were these two plastic tubs:
Mrs. K and Mrs. Ito then proceeded to engage in housewifely chatting as I struggled to catch my breath and come up with a way to ask politely if I could photograph her entire collection to post on my blog. She was happy I liked her quilts and maybe a little shocked that I wanted to pour over every detail at such length. Thankfully the sun was shining and I was able to get some great photos. 
Enjoy. 
More can be found on my flickr page, tagged with 
but I must admit, I had no idea how wonderful it was until we sat down to use it tonight.
Anyway, after flipping through The Sourcebook, she decided to make some coasters, and I went with the slightly more ambitious project of a “sampler.” I didn’t stop to read much, just followed the pictures and the patterns. I was in a rush to get started, so was she. So we did, then we sat and sewed in comfortable crafty silence, for over 4 hours. 
I’m about half way through with the second block in my sampler and I think I’m too tired to do any more tonight. I grabbed a bunch of really good pics of the other placemats done by Rico’s mom’s friend, pop on over to my flickr stream if you want to check them out.
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