I ended up doing a 1 inch diagonal crosshatch over the blocks. One block was very puffy and it needed to be held down. It looks pretty good. Kathy

Nancy, that information is good to know! Thanks!

Well, I wasn't thinking dense machine embroidery--that changes things.

The professional longarmers on mqresource.com generally recommend quilting right over the embroidery. We always feel like it will interfere with the stitchery, but it doesn't if stitched in a thin, matching thread and avoids the ugly puff of the unquilted area. I don't have any personal experience with this, just passing on what I've read again and again.

Can you post a picture of one or two?

suehenyon wrote:
Sue, when I went back today to look at the design, I think that handstitching on the inside is the only way to go. The design is so densely embroidered that any machine stitching would not look too good. There isn't a pathway or anything through the interior. Maybe some handquilting along the edges of some of the petals so it is nearly invisible??? I was thinking about some beads.....

These blocks were part of a block exchange at our guild from 8 years ago. My mom won the five blocks. 4 are in autumn colors and 1 is blue! I put the 4 into a 4 block layout on the front, the blue one is on the back.

This is probably the reason I didn't do anything with these blocks before

Kathy

Is there any way to add embellishment the interior of the design that would also be quilting? I'm thinking of little round or oblong things, maybe hand-stitched.

It sounds like you have a plan now Kathy. I would love to see it when you are done?

kathyst2 wrote:
This is how I would do it

My dilemma is: the Chrysanthemum flower is big, with lots of loopy petals. There's nothing to outline, except the outer edge of the flower. I don't really like the way the lines for the cross hatching would cross through the flower ( I drew the lines on one block with a washout pen). Maybe I could treat it as an applique- outline the outer edges, and then quilt a few lines in the interior of the flower???

Thanks for the quick answers, I appreciate it.
kathy

I too, would be tempted to stitch around and then do the grid up to it.

Kathy, when I hand quilted a "redwork" quilt I outlined each design, even individual design segments. Then I did a half inch grid on the blocks up to the redwork but not over the redwork.
Margarita

I am trying to decide how to quilt some redwork blocks. They are 13 inches square, with a redwork chrysanthemum in the middle of each block. The flowers are around 6 or 7 inches around. I am going to machine quilt this. If I leave the flower unquilted it will look funny. Should I quilt a grid right through the flower? I've googled redwork quilts and haven't found much info except to do grid quilting. Kathy