cialis studies

cialis studies

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

I must admit, I was surprised and downright mystified by a caption that appears in a brand new book, cialis studies. A Redwork quilt is shown on page 33, “maker unknown, c. 1910-1920.” The captions says “Turkey Work Embroidered Quilt.” Ah, wait a minute! Someone is mistaken! There is no reason in the world to call it “Turkey Work.”

The common name for the type of embroidery shown is “Redwork.” The less common name is a more generic one that encompasses Bluework, Greenwork, etc. and that is, “Outline Stitch Embroidery.” I have written three books about Redwork, its history and instructions! All three of my Redwork books are available at:

Only have I seen e-Bay sellers referring to Redwork quilts as “Turkey Work,” only because they did not know the difference. As generalists and dealers, no one would expect them to make that distinction, but academics, c’mon!

Let’s backtrack, shall we? “Turkey Red” is a madder dyed, colorfast yarn that was originally used in the late nineteenth century when this type of outline stitching became popular. The “Turkey Red” name itself was a misnomer. The thread’s origin does not lie in the country of Turkey. I explain its origins in my book, cialis studies, available on CD. References and documentation are provided in my book(s).

The second part of the naming problem comes in because there is a stitch in embroidery known as “Turkey Work.” It is worked in a far different manner than the surface embroidery of Redwork. Turkey Work is a knotted, 3 dimensional stitch that is cut after embroidering. Huge difference.

So, someone flubbed up. Coincidentally, I have seen many of the designs on the particular quilt being shown in cialis studies. Of course, these designs had common catalog origins or other commercial sources. Bunnies, chickens, dogs, flowers, a frog under a toadstool, children, a cialis studies figure, an elephant, a mule, a squirrel eating a nut, a sailboat, a bunch of grapes, roses, pansies, a turkey… these are all common figures of the time period in which Redwork patterns were sold.

Other than the bum caption, I like the book just fine. It hits on many of the topics that I have written about extensively for professional publication and on my website, such as Hmong work, cialis studies, etc. The book is a compendium of information and has some very nice photos of quilts. There are enough words to keep one busy through a long winter, and as a bonus, there are patterns for some quilt blocks, at the end. In spite of the little problem I spotted, I would recommend this book.

Until next Wednesday, I have decided to run a special on my own Redwork books on CD. $10.00 each, one of each is the limit per customer. Write to: pat at quiltersmuse dot com to make arrangements for payment. I do not accept credit cards, but you can send a check or pay with Paypal. Supplies are limited. A nominal fee will be added for shipping. Hurry! This offer will not last!

Happy Embroidering!

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cialis studies

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Within the last several days, a number of people have written to ask the same question: “Why do some Redwork quilt have blocks with varying alignments that are not just presented vertically, but may be sideways or upside down?”

First of all, I have not been privy to seeing many Redwork quilts of this kind, but if some do exist, then short of holding a seance to ask 19th century Redwork enthusiasts, “What were you thinking?” – I’ll try to answer, as best I can.

In my opinion, the tradition could stem from the way in which quilt blocks on Baltimore Album quilts were aligned. Here is an example from the Dunton book:

Dunton's quilt

The quilt can be appreciated from many different angles, and in some cases, top and bottom could be made reversible, which would mean that the quilt was not getting more wear on one end.

In the meantime, I have been able to “guess,” from a certain clue given, that the question posed is on a test for the certified appraiser’s training program. Good luck, all!

Patricia Cummings

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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

First, let us turn to the dictionary for an explanation of the word “angel.”

angel (n): a spiritual being believed to act as an attendant, agent, or messenger of God, conventionally expressed in human form with wings and a long robe.

Yesterday, while antique-shopping near Rutland, Vermont, I found a wonderful old print of “Angel’s Heads,” a famous painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, b. 1723.

by Sir J. Reynolds

My delight in finding a tangible document, that I could reproduce to show you, was about on the same par as finding this image rendered in Redwork, in a Maine antiques shop, a number of years ago. I have re-created a usable line-drawing, for Redwork, for anyone who would like to order it and embroider their own design.

The Redwork version presented a conundrum and was nothing like we’d seen before. It features the words, “Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest,” derived from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet,” of course. If you are interested in ordering this pattern, please contact me at:

Angels are often found as stone carvings in cemeteries. Perhaps, they help to transport a soul on their heavenly journey.

The most interesting point about Reynolds’ painting, held by the National Gallery of London, is that the angels’ head actually represent only one little girl, his model, Miss Frances Isabella Gordon. To him, she looked like an angel.

Looking at the reproduced Redwork piece, one would never guess that the angel represents the same little girl, from different angles and affects.

Victorian Angels Redwork pattern

A question remains: Why was this piece re-created in Redwork? One answer is that the image could be ordered from a 19th century catalog for stamping patterns. The second reason might be the Victorian Era’s preoccupation with Death and the occult. The piece in our collection may have been used within a coffin, or on top of a coffin, at the time that funerals were held in the front parlor. When we purchased it, the white cloth was very dirty, almost as if it had been buried, at one time.

Since then, a few times I have seen this pattern worked with Black embroidery thread, but the angels did not look angelic at all. Rather, they looked demonic, a large sway from Sir Joshua Reynolds’ original intent to paint a beautiful little girl and “save” her for posterity. We are so glad he did, and I hope that you agree that it is fun to see the original work from which derivative pieces in needlework came forth.

We never know what will turn up in the antiques shops of New England. The “hunt” is the fun part of the game. This was a serendipitous find. We hope you will enjoy it.

I will be making the pattern available on the Products Available page on our website, when I can get around to having more copies made, which involves a trip to a copy shop. Hope your day will be a good one!

P.S. – We are making some changes at Quilter’s Muse Publications. The change we made to this blog is to do away with automatic feeds to subscribers. Please bookmark, to visit our posts. One reason is that too many subscribers had changed their e-mail addresses and every time we posted a blog, we’d receive notices from the Mailer daemon. It was a real pain.

In the future, we will not be posting one word comments that individuals make as a response to posts, cialis studies they can list their own blog’s address. If you don’t have something substantive to say, don’t bother trying to leave a comment. I hope that doesn’t sound just awful. I am sick of being used for everyone’s else’s self-promotion. Whom I choose to promote because of their quality contributions is another matter. Thanks for understanding.

We do our best to bring great information to you and important public notices. We will continue to do so.

Patricia Cummings

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