Category Archives: red work

Green Work Basket Block #1 – Ivy

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I have started a new project.  It is a good idea to have a handwork / portable project available for those times when you are travelling, watching TV, etc.
This is block number one in a basket series by Bee Tree Designs.  There are a total of 12 blocks–each with something different in the basket.  The designs fit nicely on an  8.5 inch square.  The level of detail on some of the blocks and the size mean these are quick-to-stitch so this project will take some time to finish.
I am using two strands of DMC #988 and a backstitch to do the stitching.  In hindsight, I should have likely used three strands of floss to make the design stand out more, but it is now done and IIWII.
Greenwork Ivy Basket
There has been a lot of discussion on the Internet about Pilot’s Frixion pens for marking designs on fabric.  I tried the green Frixion pen to mark this design and I love it!  The ink is thermo reactive and can be removed from paper with friction.  The ink can be removed from fabric by applying the heat of an iron.  I also read somewhere that someone removed the ink with a blow dryer but I haven’t tried that yet.  At 65 degrees Celsius, the ink becomes translucent (invisible).  The ink reappears if you cool your piece to -20 degrees Celsius by putting it in the freezer so be careful what project you are using this ink on.  Previously, I was using a permanent ink marker to mark my stitching designs onto fabric.  If I happened to make an incorrect line, I had to live with it and work it into the design.  With the Frixion pen, I can just use the tip of my iron to remove the mistake and remark.  I am not so sure I would use the pens to mark quilting lines on finished quilts, but for marking red work/green work, they are perfect.

Stitchery, Redwork, and Baby Quilt

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It has been a busy few weeks. I do have something to show for my efforts though.

This is a Nancy Halvorsen design from her book, Calendar Quilts & Stitcheries. The stitcheries are originally quite small and have been re-sized to fit an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. This was the block for March. I started working on this block at the beginning of March but I finished it off this weekend. It still needs the ties added to the kite string but I will put those on after this piece is quilted. At the rate I am working on these, I will not keep up to completing one each month.

I have a co-worker that is expecting in the month of June. This quilt top was finished to the flimsy stage last weekend. The pattern is Naptime from an old issue of Quiltmaker that was published back in 1999.

I wanted some jungle animal fabric for the back as the yellow fabric that I used on the front is an animal skin print and there are paw prints on the red that I used. Today, my daughter and I found this cute jungle flannel print at our local fabric outlet.


Saturday, Linda and I worked at getting our Alex Anderson heart stitchery blocks set into quilt tops. This was a day that we had set aside some time ago to work on this project. Both Linda and I seem to make good progress on these “focused” days. I had supper cooking in the crock pot so I was able to devote the entire day to quilting–finishing by 11:30 at night.
Linda and I wanted something different than the setting that Alex showed on her website for these blocks–a rail fence sashing with nine patch cornerstones. Linda drafted a number of choices of settings and this was my favorite.


This is the red fabric that I used in my alternate blocks. From a distance it reads as a solid, but it does have a subtle heart pattern to it. The border fabric was shown in a previous post on March 28. The idea is to get this top quilted before Valentine’s Day next February.

Redwork Hearts – Part 2

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I finished the remaining 8 redwork hearts in Alex Anderson’s 12 Days of Redwork series.

These hearts have been the perfect portable “take along” project while traveling on my recent holiday.
Now that Linda and I have both finished the stitching on our hearts we are ready to assemble our quilt tops. Linda has some great ideas for how we might set these blocks together.
I found this fabric on Friday while I was out shopping. I am thinking that this will work for a border on my project.
I believe I am hooked on these stitchery type of projects as I have already started on some other redwork/stitchery block of the month series….progress to follow.

Redwork Hearts

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The stitchery bug has bitten again. I am really enjoying working on Alex Anderson’s red work hearts. There are 12 hearts in all.

I have finished 4 hearts to date by just putting in a few stitches here and there.

The designs are originally for a 6.5″ block. I thought that size seemed a little small so I enlarged the designs to fit an 8.5″ block.
I have plans to put these together into a wall hanging in time for Valentine’s Day 2011.
In the meantime, it is fun to work on a Valentine themed project in the month of February.
…only 8 more hearts to go!

Freckles’ Stitchery Collection Trunk Show

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Dougal Walker was our guest speaker at our January quilt guild meeting. Dougal kept us entertained with her trunk show of all her patterns made into quilts and wonderfully humorous dialogue.The cats that were the inspiration for this piece were Dougal’s own cats.

So the dogs were not outdone by the cats, there is a piece dedicated to our 4 pawed friends that bark, not purr.

A garden-themed piece that mixes stitchery and applique.

Snowmen! I love snowmen and almost brought this pattern home with me.

Another snowman quilt – a snowman for each month of the year. OK, I couldn’t keep resisting, this pattern DID follow me home!

Adorable is the only way to describe this quilt! Notice the lace curtains on the window. The gal from our Monday night quilt group that came along with me to the guild meeting as a guest could not leave this pattern behind. ……………I think she has a soft spot in her heart for snowmen too!

I previously purchased this quilting mice pattern and enjoyed seeing it in “real life”.

The same quilting mice done in all red thread. It is fun to see the same design done in two different ways.

This piece was inspired by what is inside our closets.

Angels are always a favorite. This piece was done in applique with some stitchery accents.

This is a perfect quilt for summer – ice cream flavours.

Australian animals were the theme of this appliqued piece. The pattern for this quilt appeared in one of the Australian quilt magazines.

A trip to Hawaii inspired this piece. Because Dougal worked on this piece while vacationing in Hawaii, she needed to work on the piece in smaller chunks. This was constructed via a quilt as you go technique so that each small quilted piece could be worked on as a portable project requiring a small amount of room on the plane while travelling. Once Dougal got home, she assembled the pieces together into one large quilt. you can see the blue leading in the finished quilt that joins the smaller quilted pieces together.

This was a guild challenge project. This piece provides incredible insight into Dougal’s imagination!
Dougal hoped that her presentation and patterns would serve to inspire our own individual creativity. I know I went home inspired to re-visit my own stitchery projects.