Sunbonnet Babies and Chickens – Free Redwork Pattern

In quilting, most people know about Sunbonnet Sue, a popular design that has been around for many years. Well, here’s a different take on that traditional design. These are Sunbonnet Babies done in Redwork hand embroidery.

Originating in the mid 1800s, redwork has been a popular embroidery technique for a long time. You can see the work on pillows, dish towels, quilts, and coverlets just to name a few.

Ideal for adding to a tea towel or even a quilt panel, this adorable pattern from Grandma’s Attic Sewing Emporium is sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. It is a traditional design with two children feeding a flock of chicks.

The pattern suggest using the outline stitch (also known as the Kensington stitch) for the project. It looks to me like the polka dots on the one dress are made with french knots. You will need an embroidery hoop, floss, canvas and a needle to complete this project.

Embroidered onto a set of tea towels, this design would make a lovely gift for someone. Of course, if you prefer not to do the project in redwork, you could always do bluework or blackwork.

Click here to get this charming free pattern: Sunbonnet Babies

[photo from Grandma’s Attic Sewing Emporium]

Sunbonnet Sue is a classic embroidery pattern that has been around since the late 19th century. It features a young girl wearing a bonnet and dress, holding a basket or umbrella.

The pattern was first created by Ella J. Sperry, a popular embroidery artist of the time. The pattern quickly became popular and was used by many embroiderers to decorate quilts, clothing, and other items.

Today, Sunbonnet Sue is still popular among embroiderers and quilters, and there are many free patterns available online. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced embroiderer, Sunbonnet Sue is a great pattern to start with – it’s easy to learn and can be adapted to suit any skill level. So if you’re looking for a classic pattern to get started with, Sunbonnet Sue is it!

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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