Finished

Well, its finished, all but some additional embroidery to highlight the path and flowers.

The photo is a bit washed out due to the sun shining on it, and it was blowing in the wind, but it gives you an idea of how it looks. Now I have to decide what border to put on it and how I want to quilt it. Edited March 16, the size of the top is 74 by 78 inches but I have yet to add the borders.

I have learnt many lessons doing this project.

1.Organization. This is the only thing that kept this project manageable. When I decided to do this I went through all of my embroidery cotton and picked out the colours that were to be used for the cross stitch. I then pulled fabric out of my stash which was close in colour to the embroidery cotton. Each piece of fabric was then identified with the colour number and the symbol on the graph. One thing that I really didn't consider was the amount of fabric I would need.

2. Cut your squares to the exact measure using the same ruler for the entire project. This is true in all the fabric you cut, however, when dealing with such a small piece to begin with, it doesn't leave much room to compensate for that fraction of cutting error. I wasn't able to do much strip piecing due to the frequent changing of the fabric colour, so each square was sewn separately.

3. Sew a precise 1/4 inch seam. Use the same sewing machine for the whole project.

3. Pin all of the seams so that they line up. I spent a lot of time doing this step.

4. Patience.

5. Patience.

6. Patience.

7. The most important lesson. What was a thinking, was I mad???? a bit crazy??? a little bit on both counts. If you decide to do a project like this, DON'T, change your mind and forget it.

Don't get me wrong I did enjoy doing this project, and now that the time consuming part of it has been completed I am glad that I did it and I am very pleased with the result.

Hope you are having a great Wednesday.

Patricia

English Cottage Garden Quilt

Well after a year's work putting together this quilt the top is F I N I S H E D.


I have converted a counted cross stitch pattern into a quilt, each cross stitch equals a one inch square of fabric, and 5,424 squares later it is completed. At the present time I am embroidering tree branches and outlining some of the flowers and leaves, I am pleased with the way it is looking.


Now I have to decide what kind of border to put on and also how to quilt it.



Tomorrow I will post a photo and would welcome any suggestions you might have.

Below is a photo, (not a very good one) of the counted cross stitch as it appears in the magazine where I found the pattern.

Hope you are having a great Tuesday.

Patricia

English Cottage Garden

Completed another block for my English Cottage Garden quilt. My goal is to have the top finished by the end of February.

This is the last photo I took of it, several months ago, its not a very good one. Since then I have added another row of 10 inch blocks at the bottom.

Thanks for visiting.
Patricia