For my birthday last September, my oldest daughter made up a bunch of redwork embroidery pieces featuring sunbonnet ladies doing various phases of quilting. She got her patterns from Quilting Bee Designs. I chose five of the panels to make this wall hanging.
I spent months looking for fabric that I thought would complement the embroidery but not overwhelm it. I found three pieces at Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio, that I thought would work well. Then, I tried out some blocks, again not wanting to detract from the embroidery. I wasn’t happy with anything until I got this book for Christmas.
There were 111 vintage blocks to choose from and in leafing through the book, The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt”, on Christmas Eve, I was immediately drawn to one called, “Flower Garden Path”. The book has a CD to print out templates for sampler blocks which are 6″ but I wanted 9″ blocks, so I used my Electric Quilt 6 software to re-draw the pattern and print it out for rotary cutting in the 9″ size.
I machine-pieced the blocks and put the quilt top together. It’s a rather time-consuming block to sew, but I like the way it seems to frame the redwork panels.
I do only very simple machine quilting and was happy that my daughter offered to hand-quilt this piece. Her beautiful stitching was just what the quilt needed
…and we liked the idea of vintage buttons in the center of the pieced blocks.
I made a scrappy patchwork backing and scanned recent pictures to print on the label.
It makes a nice, cheery wall hanging for my living room.
I love it Lillian the ladies look great in their little quilt.
Darlene
Thank you – the redwork designs are so cute. I’m just getting ready to make another wall hanging out of a bigger redwork design that shows a sunbonnet lady in a crowded sewing room. Lillian