I'm loving the idea of embroidery in quilts and I have one that I'm currently working on the outline for. I'd like to see what everyone else has done for embroidery. I'm doing mine by hand, not machine.

Here is a link to my web site. There are several done by hand and machine. i am an addicted cross stitcher and can't seem to stop. Even in my dreams.

http://maria-quilted-treasures.com/index.html

If you click on quilts for sale, the turtle one was done by hand.
On the Sold Items page, the music picks was done by machine and the Boston Terrier was done by hand. On more quilts, Cafe Embroidered, Coffee! and Three Wise Men were done by machine, and Audrey and Pagoda by hand.

For hand embroidered items, I find that if Quilt around the embroidery it looks a little inflated and I didn't like the appearance, so I made a simple one and tried quilting over the design with nylon thread. It worked great. You can not see the thread of he quilting and the embroidered design shows very well.

Maria

Maride your things are gorgeous.

I haven't posted a picture before, so lets see if this works. This is Sunbonnet Sue done in redwork.

Here's a link to my photobucket page if you want to see each block. The picture is before I sewed it together and I ended up changing the bottom left corner block with another one.
http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...quilting-misc/

Thanks a lot. It is my thereapy after being all day working in the lab to be able to buy fabrics.

Maria

This is a jean quilt I made for my mom and embroidered flowers on it for her since she loves to be in the garden. I had just gotten the brother embroidery machine and had to try it out right away :)

here are a couple of things I have done !

Mary- that is lovely redwork and bluework! I have thought about trying my hand at redwork, but I LITERALLY have a list of quilts I want to make, so it doesn't look like I will try redwork anytime soon.Beautiful work. :D

WOW! Everyones done such awesome work.. I have a question for the cross stitchers.. Do you use aida cloth? If so how does it wash up? Do you put something on the back? I'm wanting to put my Animal babies in a quilt

You all have seen many of mine, but here's a couple.

Everyone does such great work. Now, do you outline your work before you do the colors? The piece I'm working on, I'm doing it all in black outline, then going to fill in with colors. And fot hose who do hand enbroidery, what techniques do you use to fill in colors and do red/blue works??

Mary - those are wonderful! What size are they?

My SBS redwork was from a pattern book I bought at my LQS. The patterns are all ironed on. I embroider the outline only. Then the dresses have a gazillion french knots!

Aida cloth washes up fine, actually becomes softer after washing. The only thing is to make sure your floss is colorfast. I've read about people using hand dyed floss or specialty floss that ran with washing. ugh!

There are a lot of cross-stitchers who donate completed XS blocks to charity and then they are made into a quilt. Love Quilts and Cole's Quilts are a couple.

I only use evenweave because I don't like the feel of Aida, but Aida gets a lot softer after washing. To make sure my colors don't run I wash my finished piece in the coldest water possible. I sometimes use ice cold water in the bathroom sink. That seems to work for me, but I rarely use any over dyed or hand dyed. What animal babies are you making? Are they the Maurer-Stroh ones? I would love tos ee them.

Maria

Here is the first piece I'm working on. I'm not sure what kind of flowers these are in the pattern, but I think the colors are going to start out light in the middle and get darker as I work out to the edges of the floowers. And I have no idea what colors to use for the hummingbird.

I have a question and I hope you are not offended. Why is the back stitching done before the colors? I only do cross stitching and it is always done at the end. One inquisitive mind wants to know.

Maria

I guess it's because it's the way I was taught. My aunt taught me years ago and she told me it was always easier for her to do the outline first, gave her an idea of the size of the project when it would be finished. I'm a creature of habbit, so that's just how I've done it. But when I do counted cross stitch, I always do the back stitching last...it's only when I don't do counted that I do the back stitching first. I hope that makes sense!

Yes, they are the EMS ones. Here's the link for pics.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...97883745TOrRQV

It makes sense to me if it does to you. Did I say that it is beautiful? I love hummingbirds. I cross stitched one for my mother in law that was huge. You can see it here

http://www.east-texas-treasures.com/...2993/id/363399

Also you can go here to view many hummingbirds and get an idea for the colors of yours.

http://www.abcstitch.com/subjects_ph...t=hummingbirds

Maria

I saw this same pattern done awhile back in Cross stitch. The flowers were purple. Hummingbird had alot of greens. Hope this helps

Here is a quilt that I made when I first got my embroidery machine. I donated it to the one room school house that we are restoring for a raffle. It ended up going to Utah and I am in Indiana. That quilt has gotten farther than I have. It has flowers, birds and butterflies on it.

Mary

Oh all of the pieces you girls have shown are really special. I love to hand embroider, there is just something homey about it that is satisfing to me. And it doesn't hurt to have a huge collection of patterns on hand to play with. Some are very old and some new. The next one I am doing is some little imps sitting on a branch singing and one about to hit another with a mallet over the head. LoL! I have had it years and it has finally going to get it's turn. Another one that is soon ... is a group of children playing ring around the rosie (redwork).

I just finished a Good Morning, Good Night redwork pillow case set yesterday. I haven't taken a pic as yet though. I am waiting until I put the battenburg lace edging on it to show it off.

Oooh, your hand embroidery makes me drool. I'm such a newbie. I've done counted cross stitch, but hand embroidery is a real craft. I try though!

Oh Chele, That is adoreable. I think your doing a super duper great job kiddo.

Everyone's quilts are so beautiful!!

I know I posted this pix on another thread but just thought you might want to know that I've machine embroidery applique these little critters.

This is why I love this board! I get to see all the beautiful work. I didn't think I wanted a sewing machine that did embroidery , but now do! Will put on my wish list. I am definately loving all the quilts.

That's what I thought they were and those were colors I was going to use. I've grown Morning Glory mixes before, blue, purple, red and white. I'm going to do blues and purples...still not sure about the bird itself yet...think I might just wing it.

Lol, I didn't even notice that!!

Sewlulu your animals are so cute and well done too. I itput some cross stitch I did on another thread about floss and was wondering if I should add them here too?
Darlene

Has anyone ever used one of those Clover embroidery tools with the different sized needles?