Catching Up - Stitching with Kaari Meng of French General

Kaari Meng of French General visited Paper Crown in October and somehow I managed to miss posting about that on my blog. I'm a long-time admirer of Kaari and French General, and have purchased all of her books as they were published. In 2010 I took Kaari's necklace class at Silver Bella. 

I also bought one of her beautiful bracelet kits at Silver Bella that I completed later.

In 2012 my friend Chris and I went to LA for French General's Art of Craft Weekend (more on that trip here.) Visiting French General was a thrill for sure! 

Kaari taught two classes at Paper Crown - a necklace class that I didn't sign up for and of course wished later that I had, and a Boro and Sashiko stitching class. 

Here I am with Kaari during the stitching class.

There were wonderful French General and vintage fabrics to choose from for our class project. It was tempting to use those, but I wanted to stitch with some flour sack and other vintage fabrics that were my grandmother's. I did incorporate a few bits from Kaari's fabric stash. Here's my piece at the end of class.

The indigo strip in the upper center and the pale blue and navy stripe came from Kaari's fabrics. The rest were from my grandmother. I've since added some fabric and stitching but I'm not exactly sure how I'll use it - maybe a pillow, maybe sewn to a tote, maybe a framed piece - so it's not complete yet.

It was such an enjoyable and relaxing class. As well as history on Japanese boro and sashiko stitching, Kaari shared a bit of French General history and the process of creating their fabric lines. Their fabrics for Moda are produced at Fabricut in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is just one of the reasons Cindy at Paper Crown was able to entice Kaari for classes here.

If you'd like to see more, check out Jackie's blog here and the Paper Crown blog here.

My next post will be all about Glitter Market weekend and classes with Terri Brush, so be sure to check back!