Reworking an old, incomplete piece...

Last month my mom was going through some vintage needlework she had accumulated over the years. She used to do a needlework party plan & taught candlewicking for awhile. In this bunch of stuff, she uncovered a partially embroidered piece that looked like Jacobean flowers. Mom said it came from my aunt's house.

Apparently the woman who owned my aunt's house previously was an artist. She used to go down to NYC to pick up supplies & come back to her home Gansevoort (Saratoga County, NY) to work on her ideas. This piece may have been one of her own designs transferred on to a bit of linen.

I decided to remove the original embroidery, which felt like crewel wool, & embroider the piece myself.

Used embroidery scissors to remove the old stitching

A new color pallet of variegated floss

 I used DMC variegated floss, #92 (green), #99 (burgundy/pink), & #105 (brown) to complete the piece. I wanted different colors but didn't want to have to plan a color way. So, I was lazy & used variegated floss!

Detail of the completed piece

Finished piece

Now that the piece is finished, I need to decide what to do with it. Should I frame it? Should I turn it into a table runner?

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!

Embroidery to match your fabric...

I can't draw to save my life. & here comes the but; the very big BUT!

I can color & I can trace!

& I can embroider.

So, what do I do when I want an embroidery pattern to match the fabric I am working with? Do I search through my stash of patterns, books, quotes, photos, & other random bits of ephemera? Sometimes, but usually I create a pattern from the fabric. Using the fabric as the base for my embroidery pattern ensures that it will match!

Step 1. Scan the fabric & save it. I save it to my Dropbox account so that I can have it wherever I go. Especially if I'm blogging on the go. Or need a new pattern while at a friend's house for tea.


Ghastlies Witch under embroidery transformation

Step 2. Print out the scanned image to the size you want, then trace the image onto your fabric. I taped the bleached cotton muslin fabric & paper to the window & used natural light. I almost always use regular pencil to trace patterns.

Step 3. Start embroidering. I mainly used an outline stitch with 3 strands of floss. The hair & face I used 2 strands & a modified back stitch. The DNC floss is a dark gray that looks like pencil (I don't recall the number). I used a rather old 6" spring hoop & what ever needle I had laying around.

Ghastlies Witch transformed

Step 4. Give it to your amazing mother to make it into whatever you or she wants! LOL! For me, this is true because I cannot sew. I'll have to take a class one of these days! Mom made it in to a tea cozy.

Embroidered front of completed tea cozy

fabric back of completed tea cozy

If you like the fabric, it is a series called The Ghastlies by Alexander Henry Fabrics. You can buy it a bunch of places, but I like Hawthorn Threads.

Gram's embroidery

My mother's mother passed away 7 years ago. This past summer, while going through her things, my mother came across a number of Gram's old craft projects. She went through them & decided on one each for all of us. Mine is a counted cross stitched & embroidered children's prayer.

cross stitch by Jacqueline Martin

For my birthday, my Mom brought the cross stitch to KC Framing & Fabrics in Saratoga Springs, NY. Kelly did a great job with the matting & framing!

close-up of older girl and baby

I am rather partial to the older girl with the brown braids. I wore braids & ponytails quite a bit as a kid. She reminds me of myself, but she also looks like my big sistar, Emily. The little blond baby reminds me of my little sistar, Heather.

close-up of older boy and younger girl

 This little girl could be me, the middle sistar. The boy could be my older brother, Sean, if his hair were brown.

close-up of younger boy

There are only 4 of us, so this little boy is extra. He's cute though.

Heather's pillow

Last Christmas I decided I wanted to make something special for my little sistar*. We are very close in age & shared a room for the majority of our childhood. In many ways we were best friends. I thought about sister quotes, but I'm not a fan of embroidering words.

If your family is like my family, there are a few iconic photographs that everyone loves & remembers. I decided I would adapt one of the images into an embroidery pattern & make a pillow. Brilliant!

I decided on one photograph. Luckily it was already scanned, so I had a digital copy to work with.

Heather & Tisha outside Nanny & Gramp's house c.1977


I printed the image out on a regular sheet of paper. Then, using pencil, I traced the objects to be included in the finished design & added embellishments.



pencil outline on copy of image above

Then, I blew up the image on the printer/ scanner & retraced the outline using black marker for most lines & black pen for fine lines.

marker & pen outline on copy of previous image


Notice how I chose to include a complete outline of the mailbox on the fence? I nixed the tree & added some cartoon flowers near Heather at the base of the fence. I chose to add the flowers because Nanny was an avid gardener & owned her own greenhouse business for many years. She eventually put a flower bed around the mailbox.

If you want a reverse of the image simply flip the paper over, & using a light box or taping it to a window, trace the image onto the back of the paper. Now you have two patterns.

reverse of previous image

Next, I traced the image on white Kona fabric using pencil (but water soluble blue marking pen works as well). I used crayons based on the colors in the original photograph & colored in little Tisha & Heather & the flag on the mailbox. Then, sandwiching the colored fabric between two pieces of paper, I ironed the crayon into the fabric (process is called "crayon tinting"). Then, choosing coordinating embroidery floss, I got to work. Since I don't sew, our mom^ made the finished square into this pillow. (Thanks Mom!)

finished pillow

* I'm not sure how this started, but my sister Emily came up with this. We are Big Sistar (Emily), Middle Sistar (me), and Little Sistar (Heather).

^ Mom's blog- http://www.justaduck88.blogspot.com/

redwork tea cozy & table quilt

Mom & I have been working like crazy these past few weeks. Craft fair two weeks ago, one today, a couple in October & one in November before she & Dad head to Vegas for Thanksgiving with my little sistar!

I will be updating my Etsy Shop tomorrow with anything that doesn't sell today (Kulak's on Route 146 in Rexford, NY if anyone is out & about).

tea cozy & table quilt in redwork

The teapots on the table quilt in the image above were adapted from a disposable, paper napkin. I scanned napkin, then increased the size of each teapot to fit on my pre-cut 12"x12" cotton muslin square. Outline stitch in red... then get my mom to put the squares into a quilt. (I have to learn to sew one of these days!) The tea cozy is a different pattern that I did not design or adapt, but they look great together!

Happy International Women's Day 2012

My latest (completed) redwork piece is this one below. With working full time, taking 3 graduate courses, & being a single parent, I don't have tons of embroidery time. This one may, eventually, be included in my redwork suffrage quilt that I am working on.

I think people who know me well may disagree with this. Not the feminism part...



I like the interjection, but I might make another- Fall 2011

It is a 9.5" unfinished block on bleached cotton muslin. The floss is DNC 666 and is (for me) a bizaar combination of satin stitch, outline stitch, & back stitch. Generally I stick with outline, but letters can give me trouble, so I've been trying back stitch... Now that I think of it, the floss color is odd for my redwork as well. Humph!