Slow stitching a Modern Japanese Rice Bag

I thought I'd share with you some images of the Japanese Rice Bag I made earlier in the year. This project was one of the most soothing I've worked on as it was such a simple make with beautiful results. 

I carefully chose my favoutite colours and prints, hand stitched in the garden over the summer and let my mind wander as I stitched freely, waiting to see what came next.

The pattern is The Modern Japanese Rice Bag by Karen Stevens and you can buy it on etsy here. I pieced most of the fabric together and then added a few patches of red that were scraps from a dress I'd made. I basted my fabric piece onto some cotton batting as I like the texture you get with the stitches and the bag is sturdy and squishy.

The pattern is easy to follow and it's a super quick make. I keep my current crochet project in it at the moment, I'm going to make another for some embroidery that I have on the go.

I lined mine with a fuchsia pink heavy satin that I have meters of, it's good to use some of it up!

There are some stitches on the bottom too, I like to add little details that are a surprise.

If you want to make one up in my fabrics, you'll need a Sample Pack and a fabric panel to make up the main body of the bag. Choose your favourite colours and then hunt through your scraps for some patches that will coordinate.

I used a variety of threads, linen, silk and some DMC to add different textures to the stitches. Enjoy picking out your fabrics and colours and then the slow process of adding some stitches and details to make your bag personal. 

** If you don't see a fabric panel in the shop in the colour you'd like, please get in touch. I have much more than is listed, let me know the colour you're interested in and I can list some for you.**

slow stitching

I've really taken to slow hand stitching over the last year, the rhythm, the connection, the imperfection.

Repetition and exploring the cloth, simply going with the flow, keeping the colours to a minimum and letting the texture of each simple stitch be enough. It's been a liberating experience and fitted in well with a challenging year. 

The many ups and downs of life  can be tough, and sometimes just changing our habits in the smallest ways can be enough to get us through to the next chapter, one stitch at a time.

These are made from offcuts and misprints that I can't bear to throw away. I have patched them together to create a simple piece, basted it onto cotton quilt batting and hand stitched into the patchwork. Sometimes with just a few sparing stitches, others with dense running stitch to create a wonderful texture.

These are mini pieces that I've hung as display work, but they would make beautiful placemats. As they're made of scraps there's no need to be precious about them if the become marked with wear. 

Love them and enjoy them, surely that's why we create.

 

print and stitch part 2

I've continued to work on the project I started last January, printing and hand stitching linen squares. Each square is a new canvas and I approach it with no vision in mind. I'm led by my mood to choose a colour and pattern and I'm enjoying the freedom of play with this, I don't need to consider repeats and I let the design evolve naturally. Once the ink is dry and heat set I can begin the hand stitching, most of them are fairy simple, the patterns are quite bold and an uncomplicated stitch brings the piece some harmony.

My intention was to make a quilt with them all, I think this will still be the case, I just need to work out how to make it a little calmer. There's a lot going on here.

Perhaps sashing with some coloured linen would help, I feel the squares need some space to breathe.

The lighter colours look great in real life, though they're very tricky to capture in a photo.

I may make a couple of quilts, I'm not sure I could handle all these colours and patterns in one piece.

I will continue to make up squares as I'm really enjoying the process and starting something without a plan has been very liberating. Even though it is creating a challenge to make something cohesive with such a varied selection of squares, I hope to be able to pull them together to create something pretty special in time. 

If you're on instagram, you can follow the progress of this project with the hashtag #cmprintandstitch