Sashiko Online Tutorial 2

How are you all getting on?  I think Susan's tutorials are very detailed, the photos are so useful and I'm really enjoying the extra information about the history of sashiko that she's giving us.  In the third tutorial Susan discusses thimbles so, just for fun, I've added a little poll to the right hand bar of my blog.

I've stitched my border:

the back,

with that little extra loop left on the corner to prevent puckering - a really good tip, after stitching carefully to make the corners right the last thing we want is for it to be pulled out of alignment.

The front,

and I have to admit to finding it difficult to work from the back.  I kept forgetting the small stitch should be on the back (front, where I was working) and the large on the front (back, where I couldn't see).  I'm starting to get used to it though and certainly finding the support of the interfacing very helpful.  My stitch lengths vary but I'm hanging on to Sue's comment that

We've got all weekend to stitch the diagonal lines on the 'dragonfly over diamond waves' design and by the time we get the next tutorial and start on the dragonfly I think I'll be very happy with my stitching - practice makes perfect after all.  Have a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to hearing from you all.

Temari and Thimbles

I had this very exciting package all the way from Japan on Friday - excellent service too as I only placed the order from Chloe Patricia  on Sunday 16 May.

Lovely Nat had given me the information about these wonderful Japanese thimbles and also a link to making the bases myself

Making A Thimble Base
and this is what I ordered:

I'm going to make a Japanese silk thimble and a pin cushion.  I'm a little bit nervous about it - it looks very fiddley - but the instructions are good and clear.  I'll keep you informed with my progress.
In the meantime, if you want to see some gorgeous examples of woven thimbles, go to Temari Train, Debi's work is absolutely stunning.   

Temari balls are an folk art form that originated in China and were introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. The balls were originally made by mothers and grandmothers for the children to play with ...http://www.temarikai.com/

 The photos of temari above are from the fantastic website http://www.temarikai.com/ which has a wealth of information, illustrations, tutorials and links and is well worth a serious browse.