“Redwork” Outline Embroidery

I so enjoyed sewing the black outline embroidery blocks from Lydia Quigley’s Whitework Applique Samper.  (more about this in previous posts).

I’ve since added a couple of more outline embroidery projects to the list of handwork projects.

At first I thought I would make up some blocks from Margaret Docherty’s book Hearts and Tulips, using both fusible applique and outline embroidery.  Here’s a picture of the first block, I was partly through the second block when I thought this wasn’t turning out the way I’d like.  So  that book and its lovely patterns are shelved for a while!

I have often thought of a series of flower applique drawings in a Better Homes and Garden book, but I never did take the idea to planning a quilt with them.  I now realize they would make up very nicely as bluework sampler – blue outline embroidery with blue and white setting pieced blocks; the block size is just 4” so they are a great little quick project.  These flowers are all American state flowers, fifty are presented but there are some duplicates.  Some of those duplicates are the same as ones that represent out provinces, and I’ll make up drawings for our provinces as well.  I don’t care what the flowers might officially represent, I just like the detailed drawings and the flower name given and drawn on each block pattern.

Then I came aross this month’s installment of Anne Sutton’s A Tisket a Tasket.  Looking at the previous blocks I had made, I realized that they were looking too cluttered with the orphan blocks that I wanted to use with them in a quilt – and, these blocks kind of deserved their own fabric theme.  So I started to make them up with a dark brown thread outline embroidery which I think will go very nicely with the orphan blocks – here are two done, shown with paper copies of two more and a possible block setting.

For outline embroidery, I back my fabric with a very light fusible interfacing.  This gives the fabric just enough body that I don’t need a hoop.  I used a red transfer pencil for the basket blocks, and a black transfer marker for the flower blocks.  I’ve also in the past just pencil traced the outline with the help of a lightbox.