First Finish of 2011

Just finished her up this morning - what do you think of Spirit of America?

If you go HERE (the designer's website) you can see that she was originally designed to have wings.  Since the wings were stitched out of a quilt pattern (and since I had made a quilt out of the wings of the Spirit of Christmas Stitching), I decided that I wanted to make a quilt in the background of "America".  It appeals to me more.  Don't think it would take forever to stitch either.  In comparison to the figure, the background was a breeze.  Well, it would be if stitching from a chart.  It was slow going getting the pattern set, but once I figured out that the shell pink was the main pattern guide and got them all stitched, the rest fell together in about three days.

Creating that quilt from the little bit of information provided on the chart for the wings though, was a challenge.  Don't be fooled - there are several mistakes.

Some observations:  This chart called for Kreinik metallics.  I had the 3202 Catseye called for, but not the red or blue.  Was at Michael's and saw that they were carrying the DMC metallics and just so happened to have a bright red and cobalt blue.  Decided to substitute them for the Kreinik.  Colorwise, this worked out well; I don't think that you could even begin to tell that I used a substitution.  However, the DMC metallics were quite brittle and not easy to stitch with.  The Kreiniks were much more substantial and longer lasting as I stitched.  Something else, the chart says if you are going to stitch on fabric, you should use #4 braid, not the #8 braid that is used when stitching on the perforated paper.  Well, I went cheap again; I wasn't going to buy the thread in two different sizes.   The fabric I used was a 28 count.  The #8 braid passed through the holes easily.  But, I could see that if I were going to use a longer piece, there would be wear on the fiber where it rubbed on the eye of the needle.  I simply switched up to a bigger-eyed needle that would still pass through my linen without leaving a gaping hole in its path.  This seemed to work.  I would not stitch with the #8 on a 32 count linen.

I also used seed beads that I had at home instead of going out and getting the Mill Hill beads.  If you look at the bottom you can see that the seed beads I had were not uniform in size and so don't look perfect.  They work for me, but others might be disappointed.  To those I'd say, go buy the Mill Hill beads.  Now "America" will be added to my list of items that have to be finished or framed.  Going to Michael's this afternoon with my discount coupons; maybe one of these things will be "finished" soon!  Hope you enjoyed.