Redwork-Block 1, Pig

Redwork has been making a comeback lately, I was surprised to see so much of it at the fair last year but there it was, machine embroidered. I don't have anything against the new machines that can do everything except kiss your husband, but I was a little deflated to read they are machine embroidered.

Redwork is a kind of embroidery picked up in the 1880' to the 1920's, it replaced the Victorian era of crazy quilts which had faded out. Woman were willing to pay extra money for what was called "Turkey Red" floss because it was the only color that was colorfast, thus redwork was born. Blue colorfast came along in 1910-1930, blue embroidery with blue is called bluework, green floss is greenwork. The only exception is black and that is work done with a single black strand, stitched one way (horizontal or vertical), the rest of the pattern is done in red. This work is called blackwork. By far though, redwork is the oldest.

I'll have more history on redwork as we go along because I want to talk about my project. I started with this cute little pig pattern figuring it was easy and it was....., I tranfered it the way I usually do, trace the outline with pencil then after facing down on fabric, scribble with hard pressure on the back of the pattern. This method has been effective for me since I was in high school.

The first step to redwork is the running stitch, it takes most of the time in a redwork project but still, quite easy.

You'll notice masking tape on my fabric, it's meant to prevent fraying but I ditched it after this block. Sometimes peeling the tape off can cause unraveling itself and since these are simple projects, they will be handled far less than others and really don't need the temporary binding.

After the running stitch, you'll need to weave in and out of each top stitch in a spiral manner. This is the outline stitch. Sometimes redwork includes the satin stitch and the backstitch. You'll see the satin later on down the road but I almost never use the backstitch.

Isn't my pig cute? They all are cute, it's hard to pick a favorite. C&G Design