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Redwork Revisited
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Embroidery continued as a favorite pastime during the
first four decades of the 20th century. By 1915, pattern companies including
Vogue were offering groups of preprinted blocks, often of animals or nursery
rhymes, for juvenile quilts. Ruby McKim was one of the best-known quilt
designers and her work included embroidery quilt patterns. "Quaddie
Quiltie," or Bedtime Story Quilt (1916), Roly-Poly Circus Quilt (1923),
and Colonial History (1926) were three of her popular designs.
When Dutch-themed quilts were the rage during the early 20th
century, the stitching was done in blue floss, opening the door for the
popularity of similar embroidery in other colors—pink, yellow, green
and even cream. (These quilts are technically known as "blue/pink/yellow
redwork.") Although needleworkers still produced embroidered quilts
during the 1940s, the quilts tended to be multi-colored, and the popularity
of redwork faded away.
Sixty years later, redwork has resurfaced to enchant our collective
hearts. Books and patterns are once again available, encouraging the contemporary
stitcher to use this charmingly simplistic stitchery to embellish quilts
and other home decor projects.
Red & White: American Redwork Quilts & Patterns by Deborah
Harding (Rizzoli, 2000).
Historical Penny Squares by Willa Baranowski (American
Quilter's Society, 1996).
Ruby Short McKim's Roly Poly Circus Quilt by Jill Sutton Filo (Charlotte's
Press, 1998).
Cindy Brick teaches and writes about old quilts
all around the country. She is also an American Quilter's Society-certified
quilt appraiser, and the managing editor of the Crazy Quilt Society. Contact
Cindy about classes, lectures and appraisal days at Brickworks, 3700 N.
Collins, Castle Rock, CO 80104; (303) 688-0774; email: brickworks@bigfoot.com;
website: www.cindybrick.com. |
