State Flowers

Finally!  The last of the State Flowers.  I learned a lot from this project!  Most importantly, how to do a proper outline stitch!  Thanks, Chris Y.!

 A list of my grievances:  I wish I hadn't used pearl cotton.  I wish I were more patient with myself.  The End.  Not bad when you consider just how big a project this ended up being.

Although, I'm a big fan of pearl cotton, I think it was wrong for this project.  I used a thinner pearl cotton for the lettering, which was fine.  The flowers got a thicker version that was just too bulky for some of the more delicate flowers.

I probably just need to be patient with myself all the time.  I was hating this project pretty bad when I laid them out to see what I had a few months ago.  Even considered giving up.  It turned out that I still had the most interesting flowers to go.  Adding the last 15 brought a lot more variety and color overall.  Once I squared up all the blocks, they looked 100 % better!

I need a big Atta Girl, for thinking ahead enough to over size the blocks 5 years ago...

Then, I framed them in black to bring out the lettering.  And, now I love it.  I think I'm going to had a 3 inch border in black to finish it off, maybe a fun yellow binding.  Then, I was thinking to quilt it all in a yellow on pointe grid to soften up the black.  Now I love it!

Pretty darned excited!  Now on with the show!  I've got a lunch and nail appointment with my recent graduate/ escapee.