Sashiko Rainbow

Konnichiwa!

Today I thought I'd share a recently finished embroidery piece, a new style of stitching I had not tried previously, do you know about Sashiko? It's a Japanese style of embroidery dating to the 1600's, a simple running stitch often used to reinforce points of wear on clothing, or to repair tears and patches. The decorative designs can be quite beautiful, striking and simple in their nature all at once. 

Traditionally, Sashiko is done in thick, white cotton thread on indigo blue fabric, but the kit I used contained pre-printed white cotton and navy thread. It was given to me by the stitchy duo, Katy & Maureen of Sew Lovely Embroidery at a wonderful tea party the ladies hosted, gosh, almost two years ago. Time flies! 

I'm not a terribly traditional person, and bright colors always call to me from my floss box, not surprisingly  a lively rainbow trumped tradition.  

As always, feel free to click & embiggen any of the pictures for a more detailed photo.

I thought the back of the piece was quite pretty as well, I love seeing all these colors come together.

I'm going to mount this piece simply, stretched over canvas, add some hanging hardware and put it on the wall in my guest room, perhaps. 

So there we are, so many pretty rainbows! I've loved them since I was a child, I'm sure I always will. This piece makes me happy.

This is such a simple style of embroidery, I think it'd be great for a beginner, especially if, like mine, the fabric is pre-printed. Then it couldn't be simpler, just grab your colors and go.

Have you done some of this type of embroidery? Do tell, and point me to your Flickr, blog, or wherever I can oogle them. I'd love to see! 

Hope your week is off to a wonderful start!

oxo,

Lisa