A Sampler of Cross-Stitch Quilt Blocks

Date: 2012 to 2016
Location: Wellington North, Wellington, Ontario, Canada

A Sampler of Cross-Stitch Quilt Blocks

Hand-embroidered, machine-pieced, and hand-quilted by Karen Carter - 2012-2016

Size:

This is my 3am quilt since most of the stitching was done when I woke in the middle of the night.

I stitched the alphabet quilt blocks from Cross Country Stitching magazine. Using Maggie Malon’s 5,500 Quilt Block Designs, I chose block #157, Robing Peter to Pay Paul, and sized it to be a nine-inch block to set the tree-inch squares into. With careful measuring each block was framed with the out-of-print Debbie Mum navy polka-dot print and half square triangles in the corners. I like how the red checker corner squares in the sashing create the Churn Dash patten at the intersections.

Fabric colours were carefully chosen from my stash to match the cross-stitched blocks and some of the white background fabrics were leftovers from other projects.

I was in turmoil over what to use for the backing. Then, when on a shopping expedition I luckily found more of the perfect red checker print that I had bought a few years earlier.

An all-natural cotton batting was sandwiched between the top and back. Then I hand-quilted it simply with straight lines and two sizes of spools in the border. It was not easy to quilt in the thicker Aida Cloth.

In 2016 I entered the quilt into local fairs where it won first prizes and grand champion.

• Drayton Fall Fair
• Mount Forest Fall Fair

Also, the quilt was entered into the 2017 International Plowing Match Quilt Competition.^[1] What a thrill it was to discover it won first prize for its category.

Sources

1. ↑ 2017 Quilt Winner https://www.plowingmatch.org/committees-2017-main/quilting-2017/quilt-competition Category 2, Pieced Quilt - Hand Quilted, Pieced by hand or machine / hand quilted. Minimum perimeter 324 inches. 1st Prize: Karen Carter, Mount Forest - “A Sampler of Cross Stitch Quilt Blocks”. Also an image (turned sideways) of the Queen of the Forrow standing beside this quilt.