East Meets West

Ta-Da!  Here's my finished sashiko experiment.
At this distance it's quite lovely.  Up close, you can see the irregularity of the stitches caused by the gigantic needle and rope really thick thread it was pulling.  I enjoy seeing this kind of work, but I don't anticipate ever doing it again.  I do, however, love the  quilt patterns and will try reproducing them with quilt thread and tiny needles.

The fabric on the inside is actually a flour sack.  Really.  I was at the grocery store and saw flour in a fabric sack.  I justified the higher price of the flour because of the yard of fabric that came with it.  I won't show you close ups of the binding...it won't win any awards on the inside corners.  As a quilter, I rock at outside corners...but what is the secret to inside corners?  And there wasn't quite enough of the of the white-on-white fabric 2" strip...so there's a different fabric for the top flap.

And now you can see the purpose of the project.  It's a quilt block holder for my 6.5" USA state blocks.  I only have 4 done, but have fabric from many of the states thanks to friends...and a long road trip.  I'm using the blue dragon-fly pin to hold the packet together.

Keep and eye on my USA quilt page, and let me know if you can send me fabric from my "missing" states.