Two Kinds of Redwork

Today I will demonstrate two kinds of redwork. There's the kind most people think of when hearing this term:

For my slow stitching yesterday morning, I hand-stitched the binding to finish off this Quilt Shop Redwork project. It ends up at 18 x 23 inches. This pattern was designed by Cathy Parker of Quilting Bee Designs. It was a part of a redwork series she designed. I wanted to make just this one block, but you can find more of her work right here. 

I found that thimble fabric when we were down south last winter. We were staying in Laughlin, Nevada, and we'd spent the day at Oatman, Arizona, where wild donkeys roam the streets. 

At the end of the day, we stopped off at Roxy's Quilt & Sew, in Fort Mojave, Arizona,

where I picked up 3 yards on sale for $21. I had in mind to use it for this quilt, and I'd only just started on the hand-embroidery.

So imagine my surprise when I visited Cathy Parker's website at Quilting Bee Designs and found this redwork pattern called Grandma's Thimbles:

Whoa. Well, I need another embroidery pattern like I need another hole in my head, but you know...I still have a lot of that thimble fabric left over. Might as well, right? Yeah, so I snapped that up. It was available as a pdf download and in other formats as well.

So...anyway...(tangential as always), here's how it looks from the back.

As for the second kind of redwork, the rest of the day was filled with dread at the coming tomato wars. I drove over to Working Hands Farm and picked up 60 lbs. of tomatoes. I'll be battling these for at least the next three days. They are beautiful, but they will soon go under the knife. In a few hours you'll find me roasting, skinning, slicing, boiling, stirring, ladling, filling, and processing. It's a whole lot of work, but I sure love the pasta sauce that comes from it.

Just picking up the tomatoes from the farmers was all I could face in a single day. They're sitting in my laundry room awaiting their fate. I'll include at least a few of these for one more batch of salsa too, and then we'll just see how many quarts of pasta sauce can be created from 60 lbs. of tomatoes. Any guesses? 

I was disheartened to find one of the red bell peppers I needed for the salsa was pretty well on its way to rotten. We purchased it just the other day, but all the peppers looked old, and we had a hard time picking any that weren't looking long in the tooth. This one apparently was better at hiding its age than others. Also, I had a bunch of cilantro I was planning to use, but it too had turned into a swamp thing. It meant another trip into town to supplement the additional items I needed for the salsa. It's all worth it...especially when I'm finished and I'm able to spend my hours gazing at those beautiful ruby jars lining my pantry shelves.

Okay, so after a full day of tomato dread, I spent some time on my other slow-stitching project. This is plate #8 for Pieces of the Past. And, yes, I was already wearing my pajamas...cat pajamas, if you must know. And I had a cat for this. He was working hard soothing my tomato angst.

I've stitched enough now that I'll move my hoop to the left. As for those green lines emanating from the yellow flower...here's my story. This plate was on a sheet with some other designs for tracing. I inadvertantly had the sheet folded as I started tracing, and I picked up those lines from a different design. I'd already traced too much of it to start over, and so I decided to leave them. 

I guess they're stems...or maybe a ribbon...or something. I don't really care what they're called, but there they are. It was a design decision. Yes, that's it...not a mistake...a design decision. You wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you, would you?

With Smitty nestled between my legs, Sadie had full run of the catio. We found her perched on the catwalk in the waning afternoon sunlight.

Okay, so it's Sunday morning, and that can mean only one thing: Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes. And then some slow-stitching. And then, there's no way around it. I'll be tackling tomato tonnage today. (Awesome Alliteration.)