Sashiko Fan Club
18" x 53", December 2021
Sashiko pillow template, cotton fabrics, cotton floss.
Technical challenges:  Oh, so many. The top sashiko section was intended to be a pillow and arrived complete with assembly instructions stamped onto the fabric in Japanese. I didn't need any more pillows so I cut off the fabric that was supposed to be the reverse side of the pillow and stitched the pattern. Sketched many possible ideas for incorporating this panel into a larger design and none of them worked. Put everything in a drawer.
Several months later came up with the plan in the photo. Sewed the blocks together and embroidered down the center to soften up all those angles. Had no clue how to make the fans. After several failed attempts in various media, ended up borrowing Susan Carlson's technique for piecing art quilts and assembled them from cotton scraps using fabric glue. Still had no idea what sequence would work best for the remaining steps. Attach fans now? Attach them later? How and when to make the fan frames? Draw them? Embroider them? Glued the fans onto the top layer and experimented with frame renderings, but made such a mess in the process that I put the whole project away again and hoped it would heal itself.
Many weeks later, stitched the fan frames with 1-strand embroidery floss. Assembled layers and machine-quilted along the block edges. Finished the border. Meanwhile the fans suffered every step of the way from both my poor choice of fabrics (they frayed instantly) and my inexperience using glue for this purpose. Cleaned up fan edges with embroidery scissors.
Take-away:  Fabric glue may work for other people, but it doesn't work for me.