Enjoying Sashiko at home

Some years ago I made a series of Sashiko samples as part of course I was following at the time. I bagged each piece out (by that I mean I put the sashiko piece right sides together with a plain backing, stitched all the way round on the sewing machine, turned it through, then hand-stitched the gap). I added loops and buttons, so that the three pieces could work as a wall-hanging. However, earlier this year, a birthday gift from a friend set me off again with Sashiko. The present was a set of five blue fabric squares, produced by the Olympus Thread Manufacturing Company which had traditional Sashiko stitch patterns on them. Although the kit showed five different thread colours, I chose to stitch with white thread on each square. I thoroughly enjoyed my stitching. Sashiko kit produced by Olympus Thread Manufacturing Company Limited Next, because I am a quilter, I decided to make each square into a mini-quilt so they could act as drinks mats. I used a cotton wadding and added a navy…