DSC_0011.jpgOne of my favorite things to do when I’m not writing is embroidery. Another is quilting. I’ve found a way to combine the two. First,I made baby quilts for my nieces. White on white, I machine embroidered them with the darning stitch so I had control. They turned out so nice, but I really love to hand embroidery. That’s when I discovered red-work, during a quilting shop-hop, one of the stores highlighted red-work. For those of you who don’t know what red-work is – it’s embroidery done in all red floss. Just the outline of the picture, not filled in like some embroidery patterns. Anyway, I fell in love with it. Every year I make something for Christmas (often a Santa) for my six children and give it to them on Thanksgiving. I found a Santa pattern and did it all in red-work, framed it and gave it to them. (See attachment.) That’s when I decided to make a baby quilt for each of my grandchildren – for their first born. I started out with coloring books for designs. I traced the images onto 12x12 squares of muslin. After I finished embroidering the squares I cut sashing and sewed them together. For the backing I used various fabrics, not nursery print. None of the quilts have nursery fabric in them at all. I’ve used patterns from animals to Winnie the Pooh. >>
Eventually, I found transfer books and started using them for designs. I looked everywhere for baby designs. I have 13 grandchildren, so I needed a lot of baby quilts. Many of the quilts are done in red work, but many of the quilts are done with various colors, too. >>
I finally finished them about a year ago. It took about a couple of years to do all the squares. Since then, I made quilts for my niece’s twins (due in July). One of the patterns is kittens and the other is bunnies. She’s having a girl and boy, so I thought the bunnies would be good for him. >>
A couple weeks ago, I gave my first grandchild’s quilt to my oldest granddaughter, whose baby boy is due June 20th – my first great grandchild. A month ago, I was informed another grandchild is on the way and we just found out it’s a boy. I have the perfect quilt pattern for him. Puppies. I can hardly wait to start it. Although it’s going to be many years before he’ll need it. I’ve marked each quilt with the name of the grandchild they’re supposed to go to in case I’m not around to give it to them. My daughters have been instructed to pass them out. >>