Well, it’s been obvious to me so I decided I’d take a look at some of my red and white quilts. I thought you might like to see too.

Little Red Hots

17″ x 21″

Ruby Sue
24″ x 29″

Red Rose Basket
68″ x 88″

Feathered Star Redwork
33″ x 33″

Redwork Nights

Kitty & Me
26″ x 26″

The Stitcher
24″ x 28″

Tootsey Quilt

Pinwheel Pals
36″ x 36″

My Wish
27″ x 33″

If you’d like to see some of the fantastic pictures that are online featuring quilts from the exhibit you can go to the American Folk Art Museum photo pool or search for photos on theFlickr site using the name of the exhibit.

Martha Stewart has some very nice photos on her blog and the exhibit will be featured on Monday’s show. It’s televised on the Hallmark Channel.

If you have an iPad, the free app from the museum is available in the iTunes store. Thank you Brenda, for sharing the link. I couldn’t find an app for the iPhone yet but will keep checking.

For even more red and white quilts, there’s a very nice online show at Repro Quilt Lover. Lots and lots of beautiful quilts and inspiration. If you have a red and white quilt you’d like to share, post it on your blog and you can add it to her online show listing.

I hope you enjoy the eye candy and have a red and white night!

I’m hoping to find some great photos online as the exhibit gets underway and my first discovery is from the museum itself.

I hope some of you have the opportunity to see the exhibit.

Rosie – Wild Rose Needlebook

Here’s what you’ll need -

• 4″ square of tightly woven cotton fabric for the face. I used a cream color Southern Belle cotton
• 4″ square of fabric for her bonnet
• Two 6″ squares of felt or felted wool for the outside of flower
• One 6″ square of felt or felted wool for the inside of the top piece
• One 6″ square of felt or felted wool for the inside of the back piece
• Permanent pigma marking pens: brown, black, green or blue for eyes and pink or red for lips.
• About 7″ of 1/2″ wide gathered lace or other trim for bonnet
• #8 perle cotton or embroidery floss to compliment outside wool color
• #5 perle cotton or embroidery floss for ear buds
• Freezer paper and basic sewing supplies
• Pattern sheet – download it – HERE

Trace the 2 1/2″ circle on your face fabric.

Using a light box or other light source, center the face fabric over the flower pattern and pin in position.

Using your brown pigma pen, trace the outline of the hair.
Trace the outline of the eyes and make nose dots.
Using your pink or red pigma pen, trace outline of lips.

Using your pink or red pigma pen, fill the lip area with color.
Using your brown or black pigma pen, fill in the hair sections with color.
Using your green or blue pigma pen, fill in the color area of the eyes.

Using your black pigma pen, draw a tiny circle in each eye pupil.

Fill in the pupil area around the circle. Make sure you don’t fill the circle in – this is what gives the little face it’s character.

Each little face is different. I did the demo one in a hurry. I like this little lady better – so take your time and don’t be afraid to toss one out and make another if you don’t like the way it looks.

Trace the bonnet shape on the dull side of your freezer paper. Cut out the shape on the drawn line. Iron (no steam) the shiny side down on the right side of your bonnet fabric.

Cut out right next to the paper on the upper edge and a scant 1/4″ away from the inside edge. Clip seam allowance on inside curve for applique.

Cut out the face circle on the traced 2 1/2″ circle line. Pin the bonnet fabric to the face circle matching the upper raw edges of bonnet to face circle.

Applique the inside curve of the bonnet to the face fabric. After I finished my applique, I decided black hair would look better with my bonnet so I used the black pigma pen and colored over the brown pen. I accentuated the curls a little bit and like this look better. You can always go from brown hair to black but not the other way around……….

Baste around the upper edge of bonnet to hold it in place.

Turn under a scant 1/4″ around the outside edge.

Baste to hold in position.

Pin your trim to the back side of the prepared face tucking the ends to the wrong side where the bonnet ends. Yikes, that blended dye job on her hair is scary! I need to work in better light and she needs a touch-up!

Trace the flower donut shape on the dull side of your freezer paper, including the dashed stitching lines. Cut out around the outside edge and cut out the inner circle.

With your iron on a wool setting and no steam, iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the right side of the wool square for the front of your needlebook. Note that I said ‘iron’ and not ‘press’. The freezer paper will adhere easily and you don’t want to flatten your wool by pressing too hard.

Cut out your wool piece around the outside edge of the freezer paper. Because of the thickness of the wool don’t try to pivot your scissors at the deep inner points. Just cut in a flowing line around the shape and we’ll take care of those bits of cleavage in a minute. My favorite scissors for this are the cute little Elan embroidery scissors in the photo. They have a fantastic feel in your hand, are sharp as a razor right to the point, they’re serrated for precision cutting and never seem to get dull. If you can’t find them in your local quilt shop – call Lolly’s Fabrics to order a pair.

Because I’m left handed my pictures probably look backwards to you if you’re right handed. Don’t worry the principal is the same going in either direction. Once you’ve gone around the outside of the shape, go back and cut in the reverse direction nipping out the pivot points. It works like a charm.
Do not cut out the center circle – Rosie needs a place for her face!

Lay the prepared face on top of your wool front lining up the bottom tip of her lips with the mark indicated as the chin position on the pattern piece. Poke a pin through the wool at the chin position point so you’ll be able to get the face in the right place on the wool after the freezer paper is removed.

Pin the face wrong side down, on the right side of wool flower front lining up the tip of the lips with the pin you placed in the wool. Applique around the entire circle using tiny hem stitches. I worked with a single strand of ivory #100 silk thread. I didn’t have to change thread colors when I got to the bonnet fabric area. The ivory silk was fine.

Using the same freezer paper flower shape we’ve been working with, cut out the inside front, inside back and back of the needlebook. Make sure you keep in mind the right and wrong sides of the pieces when ironing the template to your fabric so you’re wool pieces will match when layered together. It needs to be reversed on some of them.

1. Iron the pattern to the right side of the front.
2. Iron to the wrong side of the inside front.
3. Iron to the right side of the inside back.
4. Iron to the wrong side of the back.

I used a white chalk pencil to mark the detail lines on my wool. Referring to the pattern, I just marked them by eye. If you want to be more precise you can cut along each of the dotted lines on the pattern. Lay the pattern on top of your flower and lift each ‘petal flap’ up to mark next to the edge of the freezer paper on your wool. It really doesn’t have to be exact. No two flowers are alike so take a deep breath and just draw.

Using the a single strand of #8 perle cotton, embroider along the detail lines using a small backstitch. I started at the inside of the flower and worked to the outside edge taking my last stitch right around the raw edge and securing the thread on the wrong side.
Using a single strand of #5 perle cotton, make a French or Colonial knot at the ends of the bonnet for little earring buds. Sewing a bead there would be cute too.

Place the inside back and needlebook back wrong sides together matching raw edges. You can pin these pieces together or use little dots of basting glue around the outside edges keeping the glue at least 1/4″ from raw edges. Using a single strand of #8 perle cotton, blanket stitch around the outside edge of needlebook back.

Prepare the inside front and needlebook front in the same way you did the back. Blanket stitch around the outside edges.

Pin the needlebook front and back together at the top petal.

Using the #8 perle cotton, whip stitch the front and back together by weaving through and around the blanket stitching on the outside edges. I stitched from pin to pin and then back again to make sure it was nice and secure.

Here she is like a breath of springtime.

You can store your needles on the inside of both the front and back. They’ll be protected and ready to use.

I hope you’ve enjoy making Rosie. Be sure to check out the Felted Wool Tutorial if you want to prepare woven wool, wool sweaters or thrift store finds for use in a project like this.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll put Rosie’s tutorial in a PDF format for you so you can download a copy and save it to use again.

If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, take a minute to do that. Yesterday’s newsletter had a coupon for FREE SHIPPING in the Online Store to celebrate National Quilting Day. The discount code NATQLT can be used until the end of March. I have since found the shopping cart I’m using isn’t set up to offer free shipping. Drat! What’s the matter with them? It’s something that’s done all the time? Can you tell I’m not happy about this? My solution for this promotion is this; the discount code will take 25% off your entire order. If that amount doesn’t cover the shipping charges I will refund the difference when the order is willed. Not perfect but some of you will save more than the free shipping would have been and everyone else will be reimbursed for what the discount didn’t cover. I’ll do better next time.

You never have to worry about shipping costs for patterns purchased in the Stitch It Today – Digital Design Store. They’re all instant downloads. Just add the patterns you want to the shopping cart, make your payment and you’ll receive a link to download the patterns. An email is also sent to you with the links included. If you are a Sentimental Stitcher Member, all of the patterns in the Digital Design Store are already included in the Members Only Section for free. The print patterns remain in the Online Store. It’s getting confusing I know…………I’m working on that.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. The new embroidered Spring Into Summer Quilt begins. Download the fabric requirements and get your first block. The weekly series will run until the first day of fall in September. Beat the heat working on lightweight embroidered quilt blocks.

The Interlochen Theme – music to sooth your soul……...

That was my last stop of the day. There’s two more shop on the hop before I share the spoils of my labor.

I’ve dug and pulled and dug and dug some more. I worked to the point where my son said “Stop Mom, I’ll buy you some rocks”! What a sweetie, but there’s something about unearthing a 50 year old rock garden that pushes me on. I have rested the last couple of days due to age related aches and pains but I’ve got some beautiful stones and only a small section left to check for buried treasure.

For now Clutch is on muskrat patrol!

Back to stitching – I’ve posted the July blocks for the Sally Post Floral Sampler quilt and the Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt.
The Beyond the Cherry Trees block for July is in honor of the National Cherry Festival that was held this past week in Traverse City.

Click on the picture to go to it’s Flickr page. You can see the stitching details on the original size photo.

A flower……

another flower………

and a third flower!

two leaves………..

a star…………

and four cute little hearts in the center!

The border section right above this block has some interesting quilting hidden in the stitches too.

I want today’s kid to come live at my house. She could iron all my fabric and maybe a shirt or two for Rob who has just about given up on me for ironing anything unless it’s for a special occasion. Actually, I’ve become addicted to steaming. That’s what we use at the store and I’m training the entire family to just hang everything they own, shoot it with the steamer and watch in amazement as the wrinkles fall right out. With all the energy that little girl could save by not pushing around that heavy iron, she could do a little cooking and cleaning so I’d have more time for pattern design and stitching. Sounds like a great Halloween treat to me? Darn, the trick is she’s only a quilters wish………… I do love her dusting hat. My Mom and Grandma told me about wearing them. It makes me wonder how much dust they let accumulate in their houses if they had to wear a hat to protect their hair.
Have a great day everyone, play like a child and eat some chocolate. I’m going for my dark chocolate covered cherries from Cherry Republic. Dark chocolate – good for your heart. Cherries – good as an antioxidant. I can’t go wrong!