DK Quilt Guild: A place for quilters to gather, share ideas, projects, and to make the world a better place, one quilt at a time. Join us and share your thoughts, projects, questions, and tips. Quilters here are at many different levels of skill. Beginners and non-quilters are welcome, too.
We NEED diarists!
Your diary can be elaborate and full of photos, a simple story of your own quilting history or that of someone you love, a discussion of a current project or a technique you're learning, new adventures... You could post quilt retreat-day recipes (things like crockpot meals, so food appears without much attention from you)...
We could do show and tell or open thread, also, but either way, we need diarists to host. It is EASY if you're willing to take the chance.
Happy Valentine’s Day! The top picture has nothing to do with today’s diary. It’s just, well, Valentine’s Day.
Now on to the diary. I started doing embroidery when I was about 13/14. Like my writing, there were times when it got set aside during college and early career days. It was always in the background, though. I’d work on a piece now and then. Mostly for family. When I joined a reenactment group, I did embroidery to enhance costumes. I was back doing my first love.
Then came quilting.
I started doing quilting about 6 years ago. I had been interested before, but whenever I tried it, it turned out miserably. I didn’t have the equipment, or knowledge, to do it correctly. As I headed towards retirement, I knew I wanted to really learn how to do quilting.
But I still loved embroidery.
They were mostly two separate hobbies. Lately, though, I’ve seen more and more quilting that has embroidery as a more integral aspect. Looking at older quilts, they don’t have much embroidery (other than crazy quilts, which is more a seaming technique), and the redwork embroidered quilts of the late 19th and early 20th C. So I’m finding it interesting that lately so many blocks are having embroidery as a more important design aspect.
Below is a block from an online group that is mostly wool applique but with a considerable amount of embroidery in each block. This would be a pretty dull block without the embroidery.
The block below is from another online group—a Facebook group called Hopeful Stitchers, a Flower Stitch Along. Although it is an applique block, the focus is on learning new embroidery stitches. In this case, heavy chain stitch and double blanket stitch. If anyone cares, I did the centers in French Knots.
And then there are quilt blocks that are more embroidery than anything else. (Sorry for the lack of ironing.) This one is an applique basket with flowers that combine standard embroidery and ribbon embroidery. I’ve done what the pattern shows, but I will add more flowers.
And then there are quilt blocks that are just embroidery. Below is a block that is similar to the redwork embroidery quilt blocks of the past but with more colors. This is from a 2020 BOM (Birds and Blooms) from Gail Pan who does lovely designs. Still in process.
I love how old forms of art are still evolving and combining.
I’ll leave with one more picture. This was for a pillow I did for a niece. The pillow was a wool applique winter scene of a farm. I bought a button kit that had Santa and Reindeers. I put it all together, but the Santa sleigh didn’t have Santa in it. The button was a 1/2” by 1/4”, but I got a Santa image in there. Not many people will likely notice it, but I thought it was necessary.
So what are other people’s opinions on embroidery with quilting? And, of course, What are you quilting? Love to see what everyone is doing.
