FNSI February and Blue and White Heaven

For a little Saturday eye candy I want to share this blog post that I hopped to from Sri Threads on Facebook yesterday:
http://www.binichic.com/2012/02/weaving-the-waves/
I then happened across an earlier post:
http://www.binichic.com/2010/12/japanese-indigo/
about Sri Threads and again full of beautiful photographs.
Then this morning I was reading Julie Fukuda's great blog and found she has been lauded in the Japan Times.  What a star, I do hope I get to meet up with Julie when I'm in Japan (if she can find time).
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120218a1.html
And so a happy time was spent in wonderful cyberspace.
I did finish my Japanese Circles and Squares quilt during FNSI and so here it is:

In Susan Briscoe's workshop she taught us how to add applique circles to the squares pattern.  I found that, with the fabrics I'd used, the circles didn't show very well and so decided to sashiko a circles design instead.  The pattern of interlocking circles is called Seven Treasures, Shippō 七宝  This was just stitched on the quilt top after I found using the sashiko as a quilting stitch was unsuccessful.  I thought I would then machine quilt "in the ditch" but this would have cut through the hand stitching (I should have worked the sashiko and machine quilting in reverse order!) and so I decided to tie the quilt.  Anyway, I am happy with the finished quilt and it is a perfect size (I didn't add a border to Susan's original design) to sit over my lap and keep me toasty without swamping me.
I hope you had a good FNSI (chocolate honeycomb flapjack was my treat of choice for the evening).

Amazingly Gorgeous

I just had to interrupt the Chilford Quilt Show report to show you this, it's a ralli.  A ralli is a quilted textile made from layers of discarded cloth.  You can see more at sri threads.

Sashiko Eye Candy

I have just found a blog, Sri Threads, with some wonderful examples of sashiko to enjoy.  Some of the images loaded a little slowly (or it might be me!) but they were well worth waiting for. I think I need to make a nice cup of tea and sit down with my laptop and go back into the blog archives to view such delights as a sashiko stitched noragi stitching over shibori  There are some very utilitarian examples - which is what sashiko was in the beginning after all - and some very intricate, decorative pieces of work, all a joy to behold and a source of infinite inspiration.

Oh my goodness, I've just been clicking around and found that Sri sells things!  Go and have a look at their website , as well as books and textiles to buy there is a wealth of background information on Japan and Japanese textiles.  Enjoy!