While I love baking and sewing, I was always a bit jealous of my knitting friends and their portable projects – especially when I was empty handed at a stitch ‘n bitch.  So I started contemplating embroidery. I did enjoy a few projects including a square for a friend’s baby quilt and personalized napkins for Thanksgiving.

But I still wasn’t finding something I could do regularly. Then (thanks to Martha) I stumbled on Japanese Sashiko embroidery. It’s linear and I love the simple patterns. Plus it seemed like an easy thing to do. So… with a stitch ‘n bitch approaching it was time to give it a try. I had a table runner already sewn together from another unfinished project so decided to embroider the ends. Choosing the pattern wasn’t easy, but I settled on one that seemed fairly simple to draw onto the fabric.

I quickly learned that prepping the pattern was the hardest part of the project – patience isn’t always my strong point and this called for precise, carefully spaced lines.  I had to do it in shifts, but finally got the pattern drawn on. The actual stitching was a lot of fun – just a series of running stitches – and now I have a completed table runner and am already looking for new patterns and another use for sashiko.