Hiapo and Sashiko

This weekend I got some lovely books from the library.
The first one is a book entitled Hiapo, Past and present in Niuean barkcloth. I grew up knowing this as tapa, but as you'd expect, different Pacific islands have different names for it (masi, siapo, hiapo, aute, kapa, ngatu). I love it so much. The colours and patterns are just beautiful. We have a large Tongan cloth (ngatu) hanging over our bed, and a smaller, redder one with turtles and fish, in our dining room.

The next book is The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook, about this modern Japanese style of running stitch embroidery, for quilting and decoration. This book has me itching to find some needles and thread and get started. I'm imagining some wall panels done in cream and brown because...

what really struck me as cool about these books was the similarities in the patterns.
Check it out, flower & leaf sashiko motifs, and detail from a hiapo cloth (dating from 1885):


And since Helen came down with Chickenpox yesterday, I now find myself looking for things to do with my time, that would have otherwise been filled with Playcentre stuff. Maybe Itchy Girl will need a recuperative nap and I might get some crafting done - fingers crossed!