Embroidery makes me happy. I spend countless hours with a needle, floss and hoop in my hand. And, I’m a big fan of Meg Hawkey’s Crabapple Hill Studio. Her patterns are both beautiful and whimsical. I envy her skill. Each year for Christmas, my birthday, sometime in my Easter basket, my husband gets me patterns and floss kits. Two year ago, he got me the Farmhouse Window Sills Embroidery Pattern and floss kit.
Last summer, while my husband was our of town, I painted our once wood paneled pantry vanilla ice cream white. Our house is old, an 1860s farmhouse. So some things about it maybe don’t make sense. For example, the pantry is between the kitchen and our main bathroom. So this paint job left a small patch of off-white wall just begging for something to fill it. Farm House Window Sills Embroidery. I stitched through swim team practices, violin lessons and horseback riding lessons. And, I worked through all 4 of the Farmhouse Window Sills Embroidery Pattern panels. They so fit with our current style. Can you say mason jars? (By the way, my husband totally didn’t care about the paint–it was more to be a happy surprise. Like “Look what I did while you were gone!”)
The Problem
Many of Hawkey’s patterns are big. Too big for the spaces I have to hang quilts. The finished pattern of the Farmhouse Window Sills Embroidery Pattern is 54 inches square. Unfortunately, the space where I envision this quilt is about 26 inches wide which means the quilt needs to be about 24 inches wide. What’s a girl to do? Adjust the pattern, obviously.
The Solution
I started out by making the trimming my embroidery panels down to 9.5 x 11.5 so that the finished they would be 9 x 11. The freezer paper technique that is described in the original pattern worked perfectly for this. Then, I cut two 9.5 x 2.5 border pieces for the middle horizontal border. I then cut three 2.5 x 24.5 inch pieces for the three vertical borders. I finished it up with 2 more horizontal borders at 2.5 x 24.5 inches. This makes a finished quilt of 24 x 28 or so.
The Moral of the Story
I still have to quilt it and put the binding on, but I thought I would share because sometime the ladies I sew with are afraid to deviate from the original pattern. It’s okay, to make the quilt work for you. I didn’t change the original artwork, I simply adjusted the sizes for my space. Oh, and I love the fact that it now looks like a four pane window.
Doing the same is in the works for Hook, Line and Sinker. All the embroidery is done, except my husband and I decided not to include the large panel with the creel and rods. That means we will be playing around with spacing and borders. And, it will fit our space better.
PS. Crabapple Hill Studio is not an affiliate. I get nothing but joy from sharing Meg Hawkey’s beautful work will you.
