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!

Matilda Joslyn Gage's son-in-law was L. Frank Baum?

How did I not know this?

Wait, I'm sure someone is asking "Who is Matilda Joslyn Gage?" & anyone who knows me can probably guess... Yep, she was a suffragist, among other things. Her house in Fayetteville, NY (just east of Syracuse) is a house museum (one of my other favorite things) open to the public & run by The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. It was on this website, after I purchased the book Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky by foundation director Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, that I noticed one of the rooms is called "The Family Parlor & Oz Room". Oz Room? I knew Baum was from central NY, but to be the son-in-law of such a radical suffragist... Come to find out, Matilda was a great influence on Mr. Baum's writing.

The more I read, the more I realized I was glad I ordered the book. I was also glad the library is right outside my office window. Sure enough, they have The Annotated Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum on the shelf. I've never felt the desire to read any of the Oz tales before, I dislike the movie immensely, but the Matilda Joslyn Gage connection is enough to get me to try.

History of Women in Redwork

I just finished embroidering a block for the redwork "History of Women" quilt I am making for myself. This block is a profile of Susan B. Anthony in an oval... so it kind of looks like a cameo & a banner with the years of her birth & death (1820-1906). Susan B. is one of my favorite suffragists. I realize she is one of the most famous, if not THE most famous... I have read a number of biographies on her. She even lived much of her childhood here in my hometown.



My redwork design of a favorite suffragist

Books for young readers include:
Susan B. Anthony by Stephanie McPherson- ISBN 9780822566861
Susan B. Anthony: Fighter for Women's Rights by Deborah Hopkinson- ISBN 9780689869099
Susan B. Anthony: Fighter for Freedom & Equailty by Suzanne Slade- ISBN 9781404831049
Susan B. Anthony: Champion of Women's Rights by Helen Monsell- ISBN 9780820418009

Books for adults include:
Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists by Jean H. Baker- ISBN 9780809087037
Failure Is Impossible by Lynn Sherr- ISBN 9780812927184
Susan B. Anthony: A Biography by Kathleen Barry- ISBN 9781587210099
The Trial of Susan B. Anthony- ISBN 9781591020998