# Redwork & Piecing Tutorial



## RedHeadedTricia

Redwork Snowman Wall Hanging Tutorial

I wanted to share with you this Redwork Snowman that I made using things that I had on hand. I have this on my blog and I am a leader for doing a Project Of the Month (POM) on another board. I wanted to also share with my Homesteader friends. So Thank You Angie for allowing that to happen.

The thought process was to find & make things that might make wonderful gifts throughout the year so you could make them for those you love or even for making them for our own "Annual Holiday Anything Homemade" swap at the end of the year. Think of it as suggestion box rather it be Veteran swapper or even for those Newbies that are joining us for the first time. 

Like I said earlier, I'm working with things on hand, received in swaps, or gifted. I'm trying use my bits without having to shop (which makes the Other Half very happy ). For this darling piece here are some of the things that inspired this wall hanging. 

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I love working with the combination of stitchery and piecing in a lot of my small items. I feel that I can personalize it for a certain person. So let me tell you more about it.

This one starts with a subject search. In this case I wanted a snowman. The nice thing is that you can shrink or enlarge any drawing to fit the size you desire. Now for the centers there are different ways to find the image that you would like to do. 

 One is the Internet search of free coloring pages and clicking on the âimagesâ tab. You can find just about anything that you can think of. Another source would be coloring books. Believe it or not, but I find the âDollar Storeâ or other discount stores coloring books are the best with their simplistic pictures. Here are some examples

The first thing I do is find a piece of muslin. It can be bleached or unbleached depending on your preference. This time I used bleached muslin since that is what I had on hand. I found the snowman in the Nov./Dec. issue of the Michigan Country Register newspaper that is free in your LQS. I took it with me and had the drawing enlarged to fit more of the 8â X 11â paper. 

​ I took the print out and taped it to the window so that I could trace the snowman onto the muslin. You can also use a light box if you have one. I always put my images on much larger pieces of muslin/background fabric then the actual drawing. About 2.5 times larger then the picture. This allows me to have room to place it in a hoop while I stitch. Another reason is that it is better to cut down the center, then to have to piece your center. I also prefer to use a pencil with a sharp point when doing my tracings.

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Once you have gotten the picture into the hoop for stitching, I use 2 strands of floss for the stitching. In this case I use DMCâs #323. I like a plain ordinary outline stitch verse the stem stitch. You can google it or contact me if you have any questions on how to do that.

​ Okay now you have stitched your little picture, trim you picture to the size that you are looking for. Mine is approximately 8.5â X 11â. Now to find the center of your block. I usually fold my into quarters. This helps me find the centers of my HSTâs rows. You can see how that works later on down the page.

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From there you can add the contrasting sashing like I did on mine. I used strips that were 1.25â. Sorry it looks like I forgot to take pictures of this stage as I was working. I had included it later before adding the HST sashings. This brings the size to approximately 10.5â X 13.5â. 

​ Now itâs time to make the little 2â HSTâs that surrounds the contrasting sashing. For this I had a mini charm pack sent to me in one of my Secret Pal boxes here on QB. I found that I really liked the 2.5â squares for this. So you make your HSTâs using your favorite method. Here is some pictures that I took as I was making them. 
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This is my favorite method. And I tend to use a scant 1/4â seam. I like to chain stitch pieces at one time because it uses less thread. 

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This allows me to trim up the blocks to the necessary size. In this instance itâs becomes a 2â block when I trim them. Of course you have to iron the HSTâs open with the seam to the darker color or the red side as shown below.

​ Our next step is to trim them down to size. See pretty they look once the shed those unnecessary threads that make them go wonky.

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Once you have them all trimmed up, itâs time to figure out your layout and stitch them into rows. Remember when I talked about finding the center of your picture earlier? Well this is where those creases come in hand. I was able to line up the HSTâs as I figured out my layout. What isnât in the picture is the contrasting sashing. As I explainedâ¦ it got added after the first picture was taken. This sashing is a little darker and pulled more of the darker red in some of the mini charm prints.

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From here you can stitch the rows on. I put the side bars on first before and the top & bottom row. This brings the top to approximately to 13.5â X 15.0â depending on your seam allowances. 

 The next thing I wanted to do was to add a 3.5â sashing for a 3â border. When I originally sewn them on â it just screamed bright white to me. It was the wrong look and threw off the whole piece. After looking through all my stash & scraps I was able to find shade the shade that I wanted, so I headed for the kitchen. Time to do a little tea-dying. Within 5 minutes from start to finish, I came up the shade that was more pleasing to my eye.

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As you can see from the picture above, you can see the end results. You can see the muslin that I did my Redwork on. On the left is the bright-white fabric as is. On the left is the same print after itâs tea bath. The softer color worked better then the original one in this case.

We are now heading towards the finishing line. Once I got the borders on to the rest of the top, my measurements move out to 19.5â X 21.5â. I put my walking foot on the machine and went to town. This was the first time I used it to do some machine quilting. I thought a nice echo pattern was a good choice for this wall hanging. I did 3 lines of white before doing an accent line in red. 

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It doesnât show up as well as I had hoped in the picture, but you can see the one red accent line before I did another 2 lines in the white. I happened to have a package of wide French folded binding to use on this. From there I placed the pre-made binding on and gave it the 2 lines of stitching to finish the whole thing off.

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And there you have it. Another finished project that you can put into your gift giving box for that special person who loves snowmen. This is a great example of how a simple picture done in an outline stitch and those 2.5â mini charm packs can work together. Everything that I used in this project was made with items in my stash. Even the batting was pieced to fit the project. 

I look forward to see your Redwork pieces. And remember just because the name says âRedworkâ, it doesnât have to be done in red. The word just means it's worked in one color. If there are 2 or more colors, it then becomes embroidery. There are other colors to play with. This one would look great in Blue Redwork or even in Black Redwork. 

Until next timeâ¦

Toodles,
RedHeadedTricia


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## Debbie in Wa

I love doing redwork when I want something to sew with my hands. I am thinking of doing pillowcases for Christmas gifts this year. Am looking at many Christmasy themes to sew onto the border of the case.


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## maxine

Very pretty!! I have lots of those snowmen patterns. I have used them for applique patterns too.. Thanks for sharing..


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## Macybaby

That really turned out nice! 

I'm tempted - but I'm trying hard to be good and get some items finishes up before starting new ones.


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## RedHeadedTricia

Macybaby,

The nice thing about this one is it can be a Leader/Ender project for the rows. when you are at the sewing machine. It lends it self to a scrappy project and you can do the stitching in the evenings as you sit in the same room & spend time with the Hubby/Family while "listening" to the TV. Or some times I do some hand piecing if the squares are small. 

I did most of the Redwork while waiting... in doctor appt's, as passenger in car, etc

Thank you for all of your kind words. I would really like to see how yours come about. How or why did you pick out your center piece? Is it for a gift for someone? Or is it a Christmas/Holiday gift? Please share your stories and pictures with us.

Toodles for now.
RHT


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## Macybaby

I saw your post over on the "other" board - I spend a lot of time over there, though most it's in the Vintage Machine part.

Right now I'm also doing the Affairs of the Heart - hand applique, so I've got a project already for hand sewing. And I'm falling way behind . . . Problem is I do almost nothing where I can sit and stitch - don't want TV (spend too much time on the internet though). Rarely go to appointments where I'm waiting, and I can't do any work while riding in the car. I suffer from motion sickness, and trying to focus on what is in my hands while moving is instant nausea. 

My husband is starting to get annoyed with me - he likes to do more day trips, and up until now I've been on board with that. Now I want to stay home and sew!


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## Candy

Good Morning!
I love redwork and think this is the cutest idea I have seen. I made my Granddaughter a redwork quilt years ago and have not done much since. BUT this is such a great looking project. I do have a question, you said you trace with a sharp pencil doesn't it smear, or fade during when your working on it? I am thinking Sunbonnet Sue would be darling in this idea 
Candyhttp://www.homesteadingtoday.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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