I have just learned how to do Sashiko stitching from Brenda Papadakis and I really love the effect. I can see it won't be my last attempt. I can feel my whole body relax when I sit and hand stitch and it almost feels like a form of meditation for me. Now I want to find more Sashiko kits and stitch some more designs.
At my first two day workshop with Ms Brenda P., we learned back-basting as a way to place our applique pieces accurately on the background and although I haven't had much time to practice due to working, I can see it will be a very useful tool, especially when I may not have a light box to use. The first attempt will be with my Sentimental Stitches BOM- Scrap Savers Baltimore. I stuck the pattern pieces together and then outlined every piece with a pink texta so I could see the marking lines without using a light box. I then turned the pattern over and was able to see the texta lines through the paper. As I was going to be tracing onto the back of my fabric I didn't want to have the design reversed and this made it easy to trace and see the lines.
I will back-baste the leaves but will make the stems by cutting them as bias pieces as they are narrow and they are intertwined so it will be easier to use this technique than back-basting them. I did however, stitch along one side of each of the stem lines so I can easily see where to place them.
If you look closely you can see the bright pink stitching guide lines. I will only back- baste the leaves for this pattern and will make the grapes individually and then stitch them down instead of back-basting. Again drawing the position of the grapes will help their placement but it doesn't have to be as precise as when placing leaves on the stems. I can see that learning some new techniques will add to my skills with applique and make life a bit easier when I'm traveling and not able to use a light box.
I hope this information has been helpful when considering using back-basting as a technique. I hope to show some progress with the stitching very soon.
Thanks for stopping by and for all of your lovely comments.
Hugs, Jan Mac
4 comments:
another to try foe my list. Did you know that you can now buy a special sashiko sewing machine, whatever next I wonder
I like the sashiko ,never done it ,great idea with the applicatie ,I will trye this .
hugs Marijke
I haven't tried it as yet. Will have a look at it in Japan next month at the Quilt Festival.
just found your blog :) hello. I'm niki. and I've been quilting since 2001. blogging since 2006.
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