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April 23, 2008

Sashiko Embroidery


Hi everyone! This is my first post on Feeling Stitchy! Thanks so much to Floresita for asking me to contribute. I have two blogs of my own, the Sublime Stitching Blog and Embroidery As Art. I haven't seen anything posted here yet about the traditional Japanese embroidery of sashiko (did I miss it?), which I first learned about last summer. We all love our pretty colors and fancy stitches, but it's the quiet simplicity and humbleness of sashiko that lends its beauty. Sashiko reminds me why I started stitching in the first place: to meditate. Something tells me this style of embroidery is going to grow in popularity... There is a wonderful tutorial on sashiko at the purl bee that covers the history and the tools (check out the crazy thimble!).

Special thanks to water-fall on Flickr for granting permission to share her lovely photo.

8 comments:

  1. Wow - that is so beautiful - I've never heard of this type of embroidery... Thanks for teaching me something new! :)

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  2. I have always admired the simplicity and elegance of sashiko, but haven't yet tried it. Thanks for the inspiration to give it a go!

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  3. This is gorgeous. I hadn't learned about this type of embroidery yet, and I'm very intrigued.

    And I love the Embroidery as Art blog, too! How had I missed that? :)

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  4. Cool! I actually saw a book about sashiko embroidery last night, on the internets. I'm totally inspired, and love the look of it.

    Oh, and yeah, how did we miss the Embroidery as Art blog? You're like an unstoppable machine! <3

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  5. I started the Embroider as Art blog only a few weeks ago you sillies. Haven't officially announced it as I'm still formatting it a bit. :D

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  6. Hey!

    I found a actual needlework store (read not craft) in my city last weekend and that they actually carry sashiko supplies...you can use regular floss but there is special floss that is thicker...my swap partner ritapizza does sashiko and while I never new the name until recently I had admired it in practical application (to reinforce heavily used areas like elbows) when I was in Japan in 2005.

    The lady in the store was working on a sashiko project and she was using a q-snap frame which seems much more practical than a hoop because it doesn't wrinkle and abraid the fabric so badly.

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  7. sorry I haven't figured out this openid thing just yet that's me (rectangel) above.

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  8. I love Sashiko! It is just a super simple backstitch or running stitch with only one color thread! It's a great craft for the beginner or advanced.

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