First attempt at Redwork embroidery

I don't know why it's taken me this long to discover how much I love Redwork.
This is my very first attempt and, while I know I wouldn't win any prizes for this piece, I really like how it turned out.
It was definitely a learning experience. I stitched with two strands of DMC #498 onto a piece of unbleached calico.
After trying out a few stitches on a doodle cloth I finally settled on Stemstitch as the one I found easiest to work and liked the look of.
The pattern design was an Internet freebie and I traced the design using my glass coffee table and a water erasable pen.
It took a while for me to be satisfied that the pen markings had gone from my fabric and I've since purchase a red pigma pen with a very fine tip for my next attempt.
I joined a Yahoo group for Redwok and have learned a lot. It seems that most people prefer to use a fabric called Kona Snow so I need to find where I can buy that.
If you are wondering what I plan to do with this embroidery I have a little drawstring bag pattern pictured here. I'd like to find some fabric with little red hearts or maybe just a red and cream print fabric of some kind.
For anyone considering whether they would like to try this type of handwork I'd say have a go - it's lots of fun and it goes a lot faster than cross stitch!

Out and about

No stitching for me just lately so nothing new to show here.

This is because we've had visitors from New Zealand staying with us.
While they were here we took them to as many places as we could so they could get the most out of their visit.
These pictures are of a place called Altea. There is a street market every Tuesday selling everything you could possibly imagine and the prices are cheap!
After we'd browsed the market we walked up the hill (in baking heat) through the old town to the square where there is the most beautiful church and a magnificent view of the ocean down below. You can see from this picture just how high we climbed!
Sadly the church was closed on this occasion but I did get a few pictures taken of the outside.

Ooh la la!

When it comes to style don't you just love everything French?
There is a wonderful cross stitching magazine called De fil en aiguille that I asked my lovely French friend Francoise to help me find.
I received the magazine (thank you Francoise:) and, for anyone wondering what it's like, it really is a quality publication.
There are so many things I'd like to stitch from the magazine unlike the English magazines that I used to buy that were full of advertisements and very little else.
Along with magazine came the sweetest little pillow I have ever seen.
Beautifully stitched and finished by Francoise the design is from the Carriage House Samplings alphabet series. I love anything to do with the ocean but mermaids are absolutely my favourites!
This dinky little pillow is backed with cream crushed velvet, has a tiny lemon yellow ribbon bow and matching lemon yellow pins. What a beautiful keepsake - I'll treasure it always.

Time to catch up

Has it really been this long since I posted anything here? Sometimes I wonder where the time goes............it seems to me I'm much better at reading other people's blogs than adding anything new to my own.
Probably because I don't have much to show you.
The last thing I stitched and finished was a gift for someone so I couldn't show it here in case they saw it. The stiching I'm working on now is a mailart exchange for someone else who pops in here from time to time so I can't show that either.
Instead I'll show off these quilt squares that I'm working on at my weekly quilt group meeting. They are taking me forever to do because I only ever work on them at the group meetings and the truth of the matter is that there is more talking than sewing going on there!
The fabric I'm using is by Thimbleberries. The light colour is from the Sedona Skies range and the red is from the Paintbox range I think.
I'm using a free pattern from Quilters Cache called the Goshen Star.
I have 13 of the red blocks done and two of the lighter, alternating blocks. These light blocks go faster so hopefully I'll get them done one of these days.
I don't have the least idea how to either hand quilt or machine quilt so don't hold your breath for a picture of the finished quilt!