some relaxing stitches

I had on my mind three things: a book mark (for Book Month!), stitching without a guide or pattern, and quilting. The quilting is a style that I've seen many times before, and wouldn't you know? I can't find my reference for what this style is called. I'm pretty sure that it's common in Japanese quilting and may even be related to sashiko. But don't quote me on that. In fact, if you can help me out with a link or two to projects that use this look of quilting, please do.

What I have here is a layer of linen, a layer of cotton batting, and a layer of quilting cotton. Basically, I wanted to just stitch these layers together with a bunch of rows of running stitch, and that's what I've been doing. It feels like I'm stitching through butter. Well, better, probably, because it's less greasy.




It's a small piece, and once I got started, I realized that the book mark probably wasn't going to happen. It just didn't quite work for what I had in my mind. So I thought, well, it's Book Month...could I create a little book with a quilted cloth cover? I could make another similar piece for the back! But that didn't feel right either.

I'm now leaning towards making a second piece and creating a little zipper pouch with linen on one side, and the quilting cotton on the other (with one of each on the inside as lining too). Why that way? Because I'm so in love with this quilting cotton! (It's from JoAnn, by the way.)



Seriously, this is the most relaxing stitching I've ever done. After I figure out how I'll use this piece, I will start another chunk of this simple quilting, and I'll probably keep going. This process is joyful to me. Try it. Even if you don't make it into anything, a little stitching is good for the soul.