I was looking for a date on my website and realized I’d never done a proper post for my sashimi sampler.

I enjoyed doing this so much that I already have two more lined up waiting. It is relaxing as all the stitches (and stitch lengths) are printed on the fabric and it really is quite mindless. Once I started I couldn’t put it down.

There is, of course, a story behind why I ended up with such a large “first” project. When Stacia, Deloise and I were at Quilt Canada in Vancouver I picked up a couple of smaller pieces. I remember admiring this larger piece that was done as a sample at the booth. Somehow Deloise convinced me to buy the larger project and she would buy the smaller ones. Neither of us touched them until our trip to Panorama in June. Not to be left out Stacia also ordered a small project so we all started at the same time.

I did some experimenting with the stitches – knots in the back for starting threads and later doing smaller stitches at the beginning and end of the thread and going back over three stitches. In some places I left about a quarter inch of a loop on the back to allow for shrinkage but, after Stacia finished and washed hers, it didn’t seem to make much difference. So I stopped doing that and simply made sure I wasn’t pulling the thread too tight.

When it was finished it washed up really nice and all the pre-stamped stitching lines came out. While I was stitching I had a couple of ideas of where I would put it but none of them worked. It ended up here where it is protected but visible under the glass that covers our dining room table.