Denise’s Mom’s Cross-stitch Quilt

Mar 12

My friend Denise texted me a picture of this incredible quilt that she made using all the cross stitching her mom did and asked what we could do for the quilting. For starters I was in awe!! Look at all of those quilts perfectly stitched in each square.

I’m not sure what the pattern is for the cross-stitch. Denise just figured out the sashing…she’s amazing! She did put interfacing behind each block.

Back to the quilting we talked about me doing light custom, because I was leery of quilting on the cross-stitch and I didn’t want to take away from all her mom’s amazing work.

I started by quilting in the ditch on the inside border of each block. Then I quilted a swirly feather in each colored border. I knew I wanted to do the curved design in the sashing…which I’ve done several times before, it my favorite way to quilt sashing…but it’s definitely tricky when the blocks aren’t square. I pulled out my Circle2 rulers and figured out which two to use. I used the 7” on the sides and the 10” on the top and bottom. You’ll see below the 7” circle is on the inside of the ruler, on the 4”/10” ruler the 10” is on the outside. That means there are two different sizes of circles on each ruler. My Circle2 rulers can be found in my shop at: https://www.quiltingit.com/shop

I created these rulers back in 2018 because there was nothing like them and I desperately needed a circle ruler set. The circles range in size from 2” to 13” and are made from 1/4” high quality acrylic in America.

For the x’s in the corners I used an Edge ruler from Linda at The Quilted Pineapple. I also quilted in the ditch around the little 1/2” square and strips to accentuate them with the x’s surrounding them. Together the overall design frames each cross-stitch block beautifully.

You may be thinking, what about leaving those blocks un-quilted, doesn’t the batting need to be quilted…yes!!! Awhile back Denise had me custom quilting the sashing on a quilt and she went back and hand quilted part of it. I suggested she do the same with her mom’s quilt. She did! Little stitches around little parts in each block. I know battings have recommended sizes for how close the stitching should be so it doesn’t bunch up weird when it’s washed. I personally don’t like anything over 4” square, but I understand when something needs “less” quilting. Hand quilting was the perfect solution in this case.