Redwork Tree Skirt Part 5: The Final Reveal

To start at the beginning of this journey...
Redwork Tree Skirt Part One
Redwork Tree Skirt Part Two
Redwork Tree Skirt Part Three
Redwork Tree Skirt Part Four

The Redwork Tree Skirt project if finally complete. My mom put the whole thing together & even made for accessories for my little sistar's house. So, grab some egg nog & a gingerbread man...

Heather drew eight designs for her tree skirt

Embroidering on route to Thanksgiving in New Orleans 2013

Double acorn completed in redwork

Birds completed in redwork with turquoise accents

Mom completed the tree skirt 

Heather's tree with the skirt underneath

Another view of Heather's tree

Mom made a table runner & mug rug out of leftover fabric

Miniature stocking Mom made out of leftover fabric grace Heather's mantle

All lit up for Christmas with the completed tree skirt beneath

It is so gratifying to see a project completed, appreciated, & on display. What a great family project.

Happy Holidays & Happy Stitching!

La Catrina for me!

So, I LOVE my La Catrina pattern so much, I decided to embroider it on something for myself. I bought this shirt at K-Mart & thought it would be a good candidate for my embroidered shirt. So much easier tracing this pattern out on white cotton, than the turquoise jeans from the charity project.

Pattern traced out on ready-made white shirt

This year I kind of got in to watching the FIFA World Cup. So that was my #MovieToStitchTo for most of this project.

Embroidering while watching the World Cup Quarter Finals

The wrong side of the embroidery

Oh, floss! I used black DMC #310, red DMC #321, & turquoise DMC #3846. I love how this came out. I want to wear it all the time. LOL

Me modeling the finished product

Happy stitching!

40th Birthday Redwork Selfie (but not a selfie)

Wow! It's been nearly a month since I posted. WTF!

Well, I haven't been idle. I've actually completed a few portraits in that time, 4 to be exact. Plus I started working on a historical music program I have had in my cranium for quite sometime. & then there is work, family & friends... Life can get hectic, but 40 is shaping up to be GREAT thus far. Oh, & I've started running. (shhhh! It's a secret. LOL)

Me (Tisha) at my 40th birthday party

Apparently, I suck at taking selfies (per my daughter, & she's nearly 13 so she knows everything). So, Fiona took this pic of me while we were waiting for everyone to simmer down so I could blow out my candle on my awesome cake (see pic at the end).

Redwork version of being 40

Using my usual technique, I made this redwork version of me at 40 sticking my tongue out at my daughter. I'm so very grown-up!

My 40th birthday cake

My bestie, Sandy of Quigley's Cakes, made this amazing cake for my 40th. She was able to incorporate my love of toile, redwork, books, & women's history all in one Tisha cake! Thank you to Sandy & all my friends & family who celebrated with me!


Happy Stitching!

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

Thursday was my 40th birthday! Today is my birthday party. When searching for a theme, my mom & I were trying to find something "me" & cheap. Enter my fabric stash!

Red toile canvas by Waverly

Using my plethora of red toile fabric & a bit of plastic sheeting, we covered all of the tables. 

Basic red toile cotton & Twizzlers

Two redwork portraits of me

Next, we used some of my redwork portraits & pinned them to the Irish lace curtains in the dining room.

Redwork portraits of Gavin DeGraw & Richard Marx

 Then we put out the scrapbook & my senior yearbook. The bulletin board is for book quotes the guests were asked to bring. My best friend is making the cake. I will post that later. Can't wait to see it.

Vintage redwork & portrait of Solomon Northup

Happy Stitching!

Redwork Tree Skirt- Part 4: Finish-Along is complete

Well, I did it! I finished all of the redwork for the custom tree skirt. The only hang up now, is that my mother (& my partner in crime when it comes to putting these pieces into quilts & things) is laid up with a broken ankle. But my part is complete. & done in time to have successfully completed the UFO finish-along!

Panel no. 7 is traced out & tools are gathered

Panel no. 7 is complete

Underside of panel no. 8 in progress

Panel  no. 8 is complete

I have to say, that I really dig redwork with a touch of turquoise. It came out wicked cool as snowflakes. Can't wait to see the whole tree skirt together & underneath Heather's tree next Christmas!

Oh! & a huge "Thank you" to Vicki of the GYB party & all my new followers!

Redwork Tree Skirt- Part 3: Finish-Along is coming along...

Well, I have finished panels 5 & 6 for my sistar's tree skirt. Hopefully I can get 7 & 8 done this weekend. I have book club Saturday with 3 of my closest friends & should be able to start 7 there, as I have it already traced out. I'll have to stitch early on Sunday because my Seattle Seahawks play the 49ers in the evening & there is no way I can stitch during that game. Too crazy!

Oh, follow me on twitter to see what I am stitching in the moment & what I am watching while I do it. Twitter- @aprilsongstress with the hashtag #MovieToStitchTo...

Panel no. 5 completed

Gathering the tools of the trade to start stitching

Panel no. 6 is finished

I'll keep you updated on my progress! How are you doing on your Finish-Alongs?

Click here for an UPDATE!

Redwork Tree Skirt- Part 1

Most of the items I am currently working on are for gifts, so I can't share them yet. However, this particular custom redwork project was designed by my little sistar, so I can start posting the process.

Heather was (& is) the kind of kid that would go sneaking through the house looking for the Christmas presents that mom would wrap & hide throughout the house. One year she found the coveted Cabbage Patch dolls & had the nerve to hint that what she really wanted was a bald boy doll with a tooth. So mom had to brave the stores again to replace the blond, blue-eyed girl doll with the requisite bald boy.

She also loved to guess her gifts before opening. This was not a problem on her birthday, but at Christmas it was annoying. This was because we are very close in age & mom would buy us the same things but in different colors. So, I had to watch what she was doing so I could open the same gift at the same time (pink & purple hairdryers, Walkmans, dolls).

Anyway... Heather drew the redwork patterns out for me & I am just trying to get them done in time. Here goes...

Original drawing by Heather Dolton- Acorns

 Above is one of Heather's original drawings for her new tree skirt. She then had to scan the drawings & send them to me via email because she lives in Las Vegas & I'm back home in Upstate NY.

After adjusting the size of the drawings, I was able to create the patterns. Below I am tracing the pattern out on cotton muslin using a #2 pencil.

Using pencil to trace the pattern

First stitch

 I started stitching on the long trip to New Orleans to see my brother & his family over Thanksgiving. I got quite a bit done: 2 whole panels (out of 8). I could have done more but the highway in Alabama was so bumpy that I couldn't embroider without poking myself & bleeding all over the fabric.

Finished first panel

Second panel is started- bird

Heather chose DMC floss #321, which is a typical redwork color that I always have on hand.

Tools of the trade

Starting panel 3- pine cones

I've gotten a bit farther on panel 3. I should finish it today. Some of the other panels are not as complex, so they should go a little faster... I'll keep you posted on my progress.


Click for UPDATE.

Kira's Drawing Embroidered

My friend Jane gave birth to her daughter Kira the year before I had Fiona. Kira is definitely an individual who knows her own mind & will not be swayed by trends & fads. She loves rocks & has a fabulous collection, only part of which is on display at her local public library for the summer! Someone (I don't recall who) gave her a block of salt for Christmas & she LOVED it.

One day, I was at their house & I noticed the cliche "drawing on the fridge." By this time I had begun embroidering Fiona's drawings, so I asked Jane if I could copy Kira's & embroider it for her. Kira's favorite color was red which made it perfect!

Kira's original drawing

Above you can see the original drawing of an 8-legged alien drawn by Kira Weston & you can even see her hand-printed name at the top of the page!

Final pillow before it was wrapped & given

Here you can see the final product. The alien is rendered in redwork & I even capture Kira's handwriting, adding it to the bottom like a painter's signature.

Happily, I noticed it in a chair in their living room the other day. It is not as pristine as in the photo above, but that means it is well loved.


Should you like a custom order like this, visit my shop.

Current project- Town of Greenwich, NY

The annual Whipple City Days festival is occurring next weekend & mom & I signed up to do the craft fair. Well, mom signed up & is taking some of my stuff because, as duly appointed public historian for the beautiful Town of Greenwich, I will have a booth of my own.

I decided to work on some different kind of projects in the hopes of making a sale (it's been a while).

Town of Greenwich design traced out on tea towel

This particular pattern I created myself for a quilt project by a professional organization I belong to, Association of Public Historians of New York State (APHNYS). I blogged about it before in my Greenwich History blog. Check out that post here. I just "googled it" & found an image of the quilt with my 2 blocks included!

Embroidering Susan B. Anthony in Redwork

 Since the tea towel has red stripes, I chose to do Redwork, which is my embroidery of choice. Susan B. Anthony (displayed in progress above) & her family lived in Battenville & Center Falls. Susan even taught school in the area. As a Quaker, she was active in the Temperance Movement before devoting her life to the passage of a national suffrage amendment.

The image of Chester Alan Arthur (21st president) came from the book Presidential Redwork: A Stitch in Time by Michael Buckingham. Arthur lived in Greenwich while his father William was pastor of the local Baptist church.

Finished tea towel in Redwork

Below is the finished tea towel. I think I will do this pattern again in green & place it in a hoop for wall art.

If you are out-&-about in Upstate NY next weekend (6/14 & 6/15) my mom (Just-A-Duck) & I will be there on Saturday, 6/15 from 9:00-6:00 p.m. For more on Whipple City Days click here.

Self Portrait 1975

A few years ago when I started working on the redwork of my unique, spirited daughter & handsome nephews, I also did one of me.

The photographs from that 1975 photo session at Olan Mills are so cute, if I do say so myself. I was 13 months old & started walking that day, right in the studio!

So, I thought a close up of my face would make a good redwork pattern. Unfortunately, I had this frilly, Little House on the Prairie nightcap type hat. The folds & ribbons made it a little difficult to transfer onto the fabric. However, I think the end result came out, well CUTE!

Self Portrait 1975 by Tisha Dolton

(I have to remember to iron before I take these pictures!)

Redwork grandkids for competition?

Another project I have been working on for awhile is to create redwork renditions of the grandkids for my mom. My grandiose idea involved me learning to sew and creating an entire queen-sized redwork quilt. Ha!

Well, I had 4 of the 5 blocks done, but never got around to the youngest grandson, until Mom got an email from some quilt guru saying she should submit a quilt or 2 for an upcoming competition.

Breaking out the photo I had chosen of my nephew Aidan's cute face I got to work.

outline on blown up scanned image

traced image on bleached muslin using light box & pencil

traced image on muslin compared to outline on paper

Once the image I wanted had been transferred onto fabric, I was ready to embroider. I used my favorite spring tension embroidery hoop, similar to the Darice hoop, & DMC floss #347.

back of project showing my stitches & spring tension hoop

project in progress using outline stitch

Stem stitch vs. outline stitch... check out this blog!



finished redwork square of my nephew Aidan



With all 5 redwork squares done, Mom can create her grandkids quilt. It won't be very big. She is making 8" or 9" Puss-in-the-Corner for the remainder of the blocks.

I'll keep you posted if it is chosen for competition!