The photos below are an embroidered kitchen cloth, which is a gift from my mother-in-law.
This made me feel like doing embroidery myself.

This kind of embroidery is called “sashiko” in Japanese.

“Sashiko” technique is one of the Japanese traditional handcrafts, which developed in the cold regions of the Tohoku Area in Japan in the beginning of the 18th century.

It is said that the original purpose of “sashiko” embroidery was to make a warm and tough garment by stitching many layers of cloths together, or to mend damaged cloth so that they can use it again.

The process of the “sashiko” embroidery is a hard work with long hours required, but even a broken cloth was precious to the people at that time, and they did not want to waste any fabric.

The photo above is the kitchen cloth I am now stitching.

It’s like I can meditate while working on it, although I sometimes prick my fingers with the needle!