Redwork...in Any Color

As I wrote about earlier, I have been busy working away on the Over the River Quilt. I'm a newbie to redwork (well in this case blackwork) but can't imagine why I didn't do it before. It is as easy as pie to learn, works up quickly and embroidery really adds something special to quilting. I'm loving every second of it. Here are a couple of great clips to get you started. In the first one Pat Sloan shows the basic stem stitch...this is the basic stitch used for redwork.



Next up is the French Knot...this is used for little dots ... useful for eyes, flower buds and other things that are...well small and round! They are fun to do too!

I'm a bit lazy sometimes and don't like to knot off my embroidery all the time. Sometimes when I know the stemstitch is going to dead end I do a laced running stitch...I'm sure that is just wrong but it works for me... there's no video for that one but here are the directions with good pictures: laced running stitch .

If the basics aren't enough for you ...why not register in Cheryl's embroidery class this fall...she'll show you how to do the tricky wicky stitches while making a beautiful sampler from Crab Apple Designs! I'll be taking that class for sure! Here are the Details:

Embroidery Sampler
Date Thursday October 2 and 9th
Time 1 - 4 pm
Teacher Cheryl Smith
Course Length - two half days
Pattern - Kit Required
Fee $40

Leading the Charge...It's Time for a Tying Resurgance

We have prepareing some wonderful stitchery projects in the shop (I'll write more about those at a later date). This week we received all these exquisite skeins of floss and perle cotton from Week's Dye Works. They are scrumptious overdyed fibres that are very tempting to all the senses. Playing with all the floss and perle cotton got me to thinking about tying quilts. Many people have quilt tops that need to be finished into quilts but they either don't have the skill, time, or inclination to quilt them so they sit around as UFOs. If the budget permits it is wonderful to have a long arm quilter do the job for you but that isn't always the right solution. I really advocate tying quilts!

Tying is and age old method of finishing a quilt that is quick, economical, simple and effective. Unfortunately it has been out of favour for quite awhile...but I think that is poppycock! If you have a top that has been sitting around gathering dust why not take an afternoon and convert it into a finished quilt by tying it! Finally, if you do decide you want to quilt the quilt after you have tied it you can. Just treat the ties as your basting stitches as quilt as you normally would -- but I'll bet you won't -- the charm of the tied quilt will grow on you as it has on me. Here's a little video showing how to tie the knots!