Redwork from The Workbasket

NOTE: This 11/13/99 post is migrated from my old blog, SalmagundiExpress.

Today one of the books I've been editing, Redwork from The WORKBASKET, went to production, another step closer to being published, although the book doesn't come out until next spring.

I've had a special place in my heart for this book, by contributing editor Rebecca Kemp Brent, from the start. Although it's really a machine embroidery book, the designs are taken directly from vintage embroidery transfers from The WORKBASKET, a great old magazine I remember my mother getting back in the 60s. Twenty years later, I started buying vintage copies in antique malls for the wonderful crochet and tatting patterns. I won a lot of ribbons making projects from old WORKBASKETs.

A little over a year ago I learned that Krause Publications, an imprint of the company I work for, F+W Media, actually owns The WORKBASKET. That means we have all that content at our disposal, including those fabulous embroidery transfers.

The designs were redrawn directly from the original transfers and digitized for machine embroidery. Since I've always been into hand embroidery (well, nearly always -- I started doing needlework regularly when I was about twelve), the part about this project that excites me is that all 100 vintage designs are in JPEG and PDF formats on the disk that comes with the book. That means anyone who's as crazy about embroidery as me can print these designs right off the disk and create a fresh embroidery transfer.

I did the hand embroidery samples for the book, which was fun. I stitched a redwork horse head, which is an unbelievable design, on a dishtowel and two pillowcases with morning glory designs in hand-dyed and variegated thread. Rebecca has some wonderful projects in the book, but since I don't do machine sewing either, I won't be attempting the bed quilt very soon. But my fingers literally itch to tackle more of those embroidery patterns!