Note Unfortunately Stitchin Fingers no longer exists as the site closed late 2016 so I have removed the links in this post
Why do I have a photos of my needle case here? We are going to run a very special web event on Stitchin Fingers. The idea came from Carol Anne when she posted in the forum.
“In Japan, the Hari-Kuyo ceremony is held once a year on 8th February. Women bring their broken or worn out needles to the “Broken Needle Festival” to thank them for good service and lay them to rest in a soft jelly or tofu cakes. This 400-year old tradition has its roots in Buddhism and is based on the belief that even animated objects have a soul. I do not know much about the ceremony or the beliefs behind it but when I first read about Hari-kuyo, the idea of paying my respects to my needles seemed entirely appropriate.
Last year I held my own version of the “Broken Needle Festival”. I didn’t have any broken needles to lay to rest but instead I spent the evening clean my hand made needles and arranging them according to size in my needle felt.
This year, on Tuesday 8th February, I plan to do it again and I invite you all to join me (virtually) in a celebration of needles. You don’t need any broken or dirty needles to join in, you just need to spend an hour or so doing something related to your needles; make a new needle book; organise your existing needle book or simply tell us about your favourite needles or share any needle tips or ideas you have.”
Take a look at the original forum discussion about this event.
After a bit of chat I thought we could synchronise this with a post a photo challenge and invite people to post photos on stitchin fingers of their needle cases and pin cushions.
I will announce the ‘post a photo of …challenge’ on the site a couple of days before the 8th but I thought I would give everyone the heads up. If you are going to join in post a photo on stitchin fingers and tag it needlecase or “pin cushion” and “Broken Needle Festival”. Make sure you include multiple words inside the inverted commas as then two words will form one tag instead of two tags.
If everyone does it a category will form of photos of that tag. Have a look at the existing needlecase tag to see what I mean.
The actual timing of this is going to be interesting as we in Australia are ahead of much of the globe. We are often ahead by a day as we cross the international date line early but then so does Japan. Since this will confuse some people and mean that others will forget I thought we could could run this over a couple days on or around the 8th.
Please spread the word that this event will run on stitchin fingers as I am sure there are loads of people around the globe that would happily join in.
Have you seen my Stitchers Templates?
As someone who loves crazy quilting and embroidery I designed these templates with other stitchers in mind. With my templates you can create hundreds of different patterns to apply to your stitching and crazy quilting projects. They are easy to use, totally clear so you can position them easily and they are compact in your sewing box.
Templates set 1 you will find here
Templates set 2 you will find here
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