Sashiko Embroidery

These are two pieces of Sashiko embroidery that I recently finished. It's a Japanese style embroidery done with cotton floss on a solid cotton, in a running stitch. These two pieces I bought as kits (for my first try) where the stitches are printed on the cotton. I also bought a book of designs and now I'm going to try transferring some designs on to fabric and try the stitching "free hand". I might make some different size blocks and incorporate them all in to a small quilt. I could also make pillow covers out of these, but I don't really need any more pillow covers! The book I have has some really pretty things made out of embroidered pieces, like purses and table runners, so I'll see how ambitious I get!