My Noshi Obsession

I would like to share another piece I've made using the Japanese Noshi design.  This was a pattern I purchased from Fran McMullen of Abundia in Brisbane.  The pattern was for a quilt, but I resized the drawing down to wallhanging size.  The fabrics were all purchased from Fran via mail order swatches/phone consultation.  I have had an ongoing love affair with this noshi design for a long time, not to mention a penchant for navy/putty/rust printed fabrics.

Each pattern piece was reversed, traced onto lightweight fusible vilene, and then ironed to the back of the fabrics.  I cut them out with a small turn allowance, pressed that to the back, tacked it and then tacked it to the background prior to the blind applique.  My goodness, it was a long winded procedure, but I am pleased with the result.  The effect is exactly the same as the needle turn method, just a lot more time consuming!

The background has been quilted by hand using the traditional Sashiko designs, with normal hand quilting thread, not Sashiko thread.  I didn't want that heavy look on my background.  The borders have been simply cross-hatch quilted, wider spacing at the top, closer at the bottom.  I hope the photos give an indication of what has been done.






At the moment I don't have sufficient wall space to hang this piece, but hopefully in my 'town house' [retirement days] I may finally be able to display this along with the blackwork stitched Noshi design I did.

Coloured Blackwork

Last year I decided I'd try my hand at designing my own piece of blackwork. I wanted to break with the traditional black on white colourscheme, because of the subject matter of the design. I have loved the Japanese Noshi design for a long time now, having done this in needleturn applique from a pattern I purchased from the store Abundia in Brisbane. I wanted this needleworked noshi to be a sister decorator item for the appliqued noshi.

Most of the threads used were in my stash, and are a variety of brands and fibres, ie some stranded silk, stranded cottons and a tiny bit of goldwork wire for couching.

I thoroughly enjoyed this process, and despite not yet having this piece framed suitably, I like it. It's not the brightest piece of embroidery I've done, but for it's intended purpose I feel confident that when it's framed, it will suit the decor.