I am thinking about doing a quilt with redwork embroidery blocks, sashing, a narrow and wider border. As a new quilter I have the advantage of not knowing much about what I'm trying to do. So I have several questions.
Is redwork normally done on pure white or off white fabric?
Are the rework blocks quilted? If so, what type of quilting to avoid messing up the design?
If the blocks are not quilted, what type of batting is needed?
I haven't done any redwork myself, but my mother did a lot of redwork-style embroidery of blocks for baby quilts. (I call it "redwork-style" because she used lots of different colors.) I made quite a few quilts from those blocks. Most of them were simple, with the blocks separated by sashing, but I did do one more elaborate one; there are pictures at . She usually used white background, but did some on light blue or light yellow. Of course, these were not traditional redwork, so that probably isn't helpful information for you.
I don't know what is done traditionally, but I will tell you what I did. I did not quilt in the blocks on the first few that I made; I did use a poly batting and they seemed to be okay. I just quilted in the ditch around the blocks, which were approximately 7.5" square. Later on, I did stitch next to the embroidery around the main figure in the block using thread that matched the background. The quilting didn't really show much, but did add some texture to the block. I also hand-quilted two of them; on those I quilted a grid in the background of the block outside of the design.
Whether or not you should quilt in the block will be determined in part by the size of the block and the type of batting that you select. Batting is generally labeled with the maximum distance between quilting lines. If you are not going to quilt inside the blocks, that distance should be at least as great as the size of your blocks.
Julia > I am thinking about doing a quilt with redwork embroidery blocks,
Sounds like a good plan, Jerry. Your question 1 reminded me: I did a tiny piece of a redwork quilt, to be included with others in a row by row quilt. I thought white would make it stand out too much, so as I had some incredibly pale grey, I thought I'd use that. Well, it just looks 'dirty'. I wish now that I had used the white. But, I don't know about the traditional way of doing it, I'm afraid. I always assumed it was white, but I don't actually *know. . In message , MaleQuilter writes
I usually do mine on pure white fabric, or a good quality "white on white". For quilting, I like to quilt 1/4 inch away from the design, then fill the block with cross hatching in the plain areas. The size of the crosshatching depends on the size of the block. I have been collecting pure red fabrics and white with red prints (quite hard to find), just for my redwork. I have completed two in the past, and have another planned to start in the fall.
You are allowed to do whatever looks good to you! But red looks so fine on white. The old pieces are more off-white, who knows how bleached the fabric was to begin with! My sole redwork blocks (centers of an Irish Chain) were embroidered free hand with the machine. (Alex Andersen IIRC has a book on machine redwork.) I used ordinary red cotton thread. You do need to check for colorfastness, even nowadays, because red is a tricky dye. I machine quilted around my designs using a feather wreath in invisible thread, with the design in the center. If a bit of the wreath overlapped the edge of a design, I didn't worry about it. Used cotton batting, Hobbs Heirloom. I've used lots of cross-stitch in patchwork projects, stippling all over the background. Don't like large unquilted areas, but YMMD. Roberta in D
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yes, esp. if the block is 4" or more in any direction; leaving large areas un-quilted weakens the block, and can lead to some of the embroidery rubbing against the batting, might even rub off some of the stitching; the more quilting you use, the less noticeable it becomes; I quilt next to (and in handquilting, into) the embroidery designs, w/ white thread on the white background, and it becomes kind of difficult to see the quilting; the red emb. thread draws the eye.
... quilting = stability Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 -- has never let me down. ;-)
My mom sent us 3 redwork quilts, some very popular cat patterns she found in a magazine (she ordered a bunch of extras, iron-on patterns); she did some beautiful embroidery, did the minimum of quilting on the quilts, just in-the-ditch around the blocks; took less than a year for the boys' quilts to just-about fall apart, embroidery vanished, quilt blocks were floppy, and this was w/ washing the quilts about every 2 months. She meant for the quilts to be used, and they were. MY quilt got better treatment; I "finished quilting it", inside the blocks, around and behind the cats, and it still looks good today, 20+ yrs. later. The DMC floss/thread has never bled, it's not faded, and the bandana print fabric she used for sashing (I just bet there's some poly in there ) is still bright & cheerful. This quilt looks fabulous next to the greenwork quilt she made for me, about 27 yrs. ago -- after she stole a sheet off the bed while she was staying with us! I mean, MO-OOOOOMMMMMM!!! She stole the sheet! It's a pretty green sheet, leafy pattern on it, and she used it for the back of the quilt, so I got it back. Maybe because she had more time, she quilted the greenwork quilt the way she'd been taught to quilt (mother, aunts, grandmas), and it's gorgeous. But she doesn't really like to quilt, she likes to embroider; so I received one of each style, 1 well-quilted & 1 just barely. ;-)
Ragm> I am thinking about doing a quilt with redwork embroidery blocks,
Have only seen the Traditional done with white backgrounds. Makes for a very nice contrast which is what you are after....you are showing off your fine stitches.
from my understanding "Redwork" means using the same ONE color throughout the entire design. when other colors are introduced it becomes embroidery'. redwork can be done with blue (sometimes called "Bluework") or green (would that be called "Greenwork?") Patterns use one stitch only.....outline stitch. I'm not sure if the 'daisy stitch' changes the title to this work or not. Haven't been able to embroider in ages so I gave my books away.
I bought 2 "redwork" patterns from a Southwest designer that I like. One is Spanish Crosses, and she suggested you use black thread on very light white/beige fabric. I did mine on a light to medium gray batik with turquoise thread. It really looks nice if I do have to say so myself. The other one is Indian baskets that she also did in black thread. I used a sand colored batik for my background, and brown perle cotton thread that gives a woven look to the nine baskets. Neither one of these is quilted yet, but I think I will outline stitch around them, and then maybe crosshatch in the blocks. The crosses are finished, just need a border and to be quilted. I have only completed 5 out of 9 baskets. I know this isn't traditional, but it works for me.
Yes to both fabric colors. Also, you could reverse it and use white thread on red fabric.
You could also do the embroidery in blue thread, or green thread, or any other color you love.
If the square is big enough to need quilting you can use thread that matches the background and: echo quilt around the main parts of the designs, or stipple all of the background. Either way the design itself stays unquilted and the quilting makes it pop.
I'm still just in the planning stage and your suggestions have really been helpful.
I was worried about quilting having a bad effect on the redwork. I've used mono on a couple of projects (both clear and smoke) and did not like the shine. I'm so new at this, it never occurred to me to use white thread on the white background. How's that for a senior moment?
I've also seen some posts in this group about a new thread "InvisiFil" and as soon as I get some I will do some tests.
Here's more history and explanations than anyone could ever want to know about redwork
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. I found it interesting but I have a lot of time on my hands and also do a lot of hand embroidery ;) One of my PAPs (Projects a Percolatin') is a redwork lap quilt with each square being a different watering can design. Val
Jerry, I hadn't yet replied to your original message But do have some comments. The one redwork quilt I have finished I did with red floss on unbleached muslin. I set it with fabric that is navy with very small off white stars, partly because all the designs had stars in them. (The redwork designs are from a Laurene Sinema redwork/applique pattern, Angels. The original had some holly leaf setting pieces but I didn't want to make it a Christmas quilt. I substituted some stars as fillers.)
I did echo quilting around the main design, then some quilting to add detail to the designs and additional quilting in the background areas. You can see a not real good picture of it with the quilting in progress in my Quilts 2 album in webshots. I need to get a good picture of the finished project at some point, but my mom has it.
I used cotton batting, in fact I used Warm and Natural and hand quilted this one.
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