Summer Slice & Stitch – Hand Stitching / Kantha Mini

Jul 06, 2022

Designer: Sarah Gozzo

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Hello! Sarah Gozzo here from Princess In A Pouch.

My Go-To travel project is usually a small hand stitching piece like my Kantha Mini. I love using Aurifil 12 weight thread for kantha stitching. There are an incredible 270 Aurifil 12 weight colors to choose from and it’s super easy to work with.

What is Kantha? It’s one of the oldest forms of embroidery from India. It originally consisted of running stitches to create patchwork cloth from layered rags. I’ve made a short YouTube video showing how I Kantha stitch here.

When preparing my Kantha Mini travel project, I pack my Quilty Pages Needlebook with:

Tools:

Clover Milliners needle size 3
OLFA 5-Inch SCS-4 Precision Appliqué Scissors
OLFA QR-6S 6 1/2" Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler
A prepared 6.5” quilt sandwich
7 small spools of Aurifil 12 weight thread, colors 1200, 2810, 2588, 2540, 2865, 2135, 1133.

To prepare the Kantha Mini for travel, I use OLFA’s 6.5” frosted advantage ruler to cut (2) 6.5” squares of Kona ‘snow’ quilting cotton and (1) 6.5” square of cotton batting. I make the quilt sandwich by lightly spray basting the batting between the quilting cotton. That’s it! Fold the quilt sandwich in half to fit inside the Quilty Pages Needlebook, ready to go!

When Kantha stitching, I don’t tie any knots and I use the same strand of thread for multiple passes. I’ll pull about an arm and a half’s length of thread from the spool and snip it with my OLFA appliqué scissors. I sew with a straight running stitch allowing my stitch lengths to vary slightly as this is a relaxing practice. When I reach the end of the first line of stitching, I simply remove the needle and let the remaining thread hang while I take up the next color thread and begin to sew a new line quite close to the first. After cycling through all 7 colors, turn the piece and use the ‘tails’ to stitch a second line of each color repeating as many times as your thread length allows.

Kantha stitching is a great travel project because it can take a while to cover the entire fabric with stitching and the repetition is soothing. It all fits neatly into my Quilty Pages Needlebook which easily fits inside your handbag. Perfect for sitting on the beach while the kids play in the sand:)