Sashiko & More/WIP

Most of this week has been spend cleaning and getting my sewing "studio" back in order. I have to use the quotes because I am trying to fit and entire apartment of stuff into one bedroom, which is extremely difficult. Luckily, I am back to having an actual desk to sew on instead of sitting on the floor with my sewing machine on a chair. Woohoo! Here's hoping for fewer knots in my neck and shoulders!

I have also been working on a bit of hand sewing, especially sashiko. Mostly because I love sashiko, but also because I can sit in my comfy chair and admire my new sewing desk. 

If anyone knows the proper way to transfer designs to dark embroidery fabric, please let me know, because I know I am doing it wrong. I purchased some of the iron on transfer pencils, but the markings do not go away, which works great for standard embroidery where you cover the whole line, but not so great for sashiko. I tried tracing patterns in a dotted pattern and it was just incredibly infuriating. What I ended up doing was printing the pattern on iron on transfer paper and ironing it onto the wrong side of fabric. FYI: Linen was used for these sashiko bunny coasters.

This shows what it looks like from the back when the pattern is ironed on. Obviously this is too hideous for the front, but for the back... who cares?!

So this means that I am stitching from the back, which looks like this:

And it looks like this from the front:

Unfortunately, stitching from the back means that some of the stitches end up crooked and wonky. So if you know a better way, please tell me! I implore you!

Although it isn't too terrible. The bunny still makes me happy. 

I also worked on one in reverse colors. Eventually I plan on making one more in each color.

And I figured this fabric would make the most perfect backing for the sashiko coasters since bunnies were the focal point on the front. Mmm, this fabric really needed a good use. 

Now that my new sewing machine is setup, I also started messing with machine quilting and decided to dig these mustache coasters out of my UFO pile. These coasters crack me up because the background fabric is a beautiful yellow batik, and the foreground fabric is bright pink and flowery. These fabrics are not so mustachey, but to me, it makes sense. Each one is quilted in a different way. Now I just need to find cheater needles that actually work so I can hide threads. I found the kind with the notch in the top, and have purchased two different brands of these and NEITHER WORKS. It just shreds the thread. I swear, there isn't even an opening in the top! I need side threading needles, but am not able to find them for a reasonable price. Any suggestions?

On a completely unrelated note, my Brussels sprouts and broccoli are slowly but surely making a comeback from their near death experience with the horrid cabbage worms. Woohoo!

Speaking of plants, another ear plant was purchased this week. I know, I know, there are already too many of these on my front porch, but this one has a branch that is all white! I have never seen such a thing! It needed a good home. Honest.

Oh, yeah, back to sewing. Somehow, I have been sewing and quilting for almost 3 years now, but never had a pincushion. That was remedied this week when I decided to try my hand at a cathedral window for the first time. The fabric is all from different charm swaps.

I also made a few blocks for the Japanese X-Block quilt. So this is 5 out of 30 and 11 are being made by Color Bee Shocked, which leaves me with 14 more to make. That is easy peasy.

So those are all of my WIPs for the week. I am leaving y'all with a pretty sunset picture from my drive out to my cousin's house.

What projects have you been working on this week?