One of my past students, who is an outstanding embroiderer, (she has won numerous competitions for her work), and is also a fellow tutor at the Guild, sent me some photos of how she had used some of the patterns I had included in a Kogin Class I gave. She used part of a pattern to make this wallet. and it is so cool.
What a great project.
Patterns No 689 - 700
I remembering writing that I thought there would be 400 patterns when I began charting and stitching them and here I sit at 700. The other patterns that I have collected are variations on those already charted but I have got this far so I may as well include them as well. That means a few more weeks to go till I finish.
Hishizashi Patterns No 677 -688
These were all stitched in downtime sitting in the hospital. Just waiting for Doctors and other medical staff to carry out tests etc. Not nearly as stressful as the last lot. These were just stitched as time fillers.
Hishizashi Patterns No 665 - 676
This set of patterns will forever be associated with sitting in the hospital waiting room for 5 hours. Kogin embroidery is a meditative form of stitching. You have to concentrate on the count of the pattern and the level of difficulty isn't extremely high. It is just high enough that you can not think of other things, like what is happening in the operating theatre.
I sat by a window looking out onto the grey day and the storms sweeping in on the city but all I thought about was the stitching. Those 5 hours sped by and the next thing I knew the surgeon was calling my name to give me feed back and I had just about finished all 12 patterns.
When stitching Kogin embroidery my thoughts often turn to those women who first stitched these patterns. Their lives can not have been easy. I often wonder if they too found the stitching a meditative practice?
Pattern No 641 - 652
Oh boy, with everything that has been happening over the last few months I forgot to put in an order for more blue hemp fabric and now I see the girls are in Japan shopping. I will send them an Email but it could be ages before it gets here so the next sample is going to have to be on cream fabric. It is all that is left.