Chickens--on the Home Stretch

A sample of the French knots

I did finish stitching the leaves and stitching the brown vine where the leaves crossed over it. There were a lot of stops and starts which meant that I spent some time burying threads!

Next was stitching French knots in 50 grapes!
The purple perle cotton thread that I used to form the knots was a "gift" from a friend from my water aerobics class who said she "didn't need it laying about taking up space!" There was also an equal amount of green perle cotton which may speak to another project at some point!

Let me share with you, stitching French knots through three layers was a challenge and hard on my hands. It took me many sessions to finally stitch all the grapes. I like how you only notice them when you are close to the quilt. I also like the texture the knot created. I had about 18 inches of perle cotton left when I finished so I claim that the thread truly was destined for this project!

One of 16 flowers to stitch

All the time that I was stitching French knots, burying threads from stitching the leaves and the brown vine, I was thinking how I was going to quilt the 16 flowers. I had stitched some lines in part of a flower. After I did it, I didn't like it; but, after looking at it after a few days, I decided that there were parts of the stitching that I did like.

Lesson learned, it is okay to leave some quilting stitches in over time to see if the design grows on you!

One completed flower

I won't bore you sharing all the flowers. I did quilt them similarly; but, they are all a little different.

I used an organic style of quilting. I often used the shape and/or the fabric print of the flower to guide my stitches. Yes, I used a ruler to quilt the inner most petal. When I was finished, I loved each one!

So what was left to do? The two borders!!!
Last May, I had decided that I would quilt overlapping curves over both borders. . .now, I wasn't feeling like that was the best treatment.

"Squared" border

Why? The reason was that I had not stitched a contrasting thread anywhere else on the quilt.
I decided that stitching the cream over black squares would be taking the "easy" way out and also it could point to that area of the quilt.

In the end, I decided to quilt each of the inch squares with an X design. Then I tightly quilted half the squares so I had some "shadow" as Cindy Needham calls it. I like the squares on point design that resulted. I like how I managed the corner. Quilting black thread on black fabric was challenging; but, I did it.

Note to self: I need to invest in some almost black thread!

Now, how hard is it going to be to quilt the last two and 1/4 inches of the outer border? I first quilted a curved and then echoed that curve.

My plan was to quilt straight lines in the outer edge. What to do on the inner edge became the next challenge!

To be so close to the quilting finish and be stuck is NOT fun.

Drawing some options

I tried stitching various curves. I tried drawing designs. I stitched. I ripped. I walked away for a time. Then I repeated all of the above. . .more times than I'll reveal!

The gentle curve ready for embellishment

I doodled a plan for the corner. It is important that you plan how your design is going to flow around the corners so don't forget to keep the corner design in the mix from the beginning. (Ahh yes, there was a project that I left the corners to the end. . .that is a story for another post!!!)

Sometimes, when I'm stuck with one area, playing/stitching in another area, helps me get unstuck!

Corner, inner curve and outer curve designs

I'll share the corner and what I chose for the inner part of the curve. I stitched more pebbles!! It wasn't what I had in mind; but, sometimes it is good to repeat a motif in the border to help tie all the parts together.

I'm stitching straight lines a quarter inch apart in the outer curve. Once I finish with the straight lines, I'll stitch that little section between the inner and outer border as it needs a little something. 

I hope that the next time I post about this project, you will see a finished quilt. . .I am that close to being able to stitch the facing!