Hopeful Flower Wrap Up!

We have come to the end of our Hopeful Flowers Stitch Along and we have been thrilled at the great participation we have had. Most of all, we have loved seeing the wealth of creativity and the way that everyone has put their own spin on this little project!

Today, I (Kara) am going to go over the simple setting we used to finish our four blocks.  Since the embroidery is the focus of this project, we didn't want any finish that was too fancy or complicated. The sashing is made up of 1-inch strips (finished 1/2"), and we chose a darker shade of green in order to nicely frame the blocks. The outside border is made up of forty-four 2" squares (finished 1.5") in eight different fabrics. As I mentioned before, the fabrics we used were Tres Jolie lawns, by French General.

I chose to hand quilt the wallhanging with a #12 pearl cotton around the flowers and then in a cross-hatch pattern in the background, but you may choose to quilt yours differently. You may even choose to make something other than a wallhanging—there are no rules here!

Wallhanging Instructions

Note: We used a 1/4" seam.

1. Trim the blocks to 7.25" and arrange in the order you would like them.
2. Cut 6 sashing strips 1" x 18" and cut one of those strips in half.
3. Sew a 9" sashing piece to the bottom of one block and then sew that to the top of another.
4. Do the same to the other two blocks and trim so that the edges are even. Press the seams away from the blocks.
5. Sew one 18" piece of sashing between the 4 blocks and then sew sashing onto both sides of your 4 blocks.
6. Trim the extra. Press the seams away from the blocks.
7. Add a piece of sashing to the top and the bottom, and then trim. Press the seams away from the blocks.
8. Cut 44 2-inch squares. We used 8 different fabrics.
9. Sew 2 sets of 10 squares together. 
10. Sew one set to the bottom and one set to the top.
11. Sew 2 sets of 12 squares together.
12. Sew one set to the left and one set to the right. 
13. Press sashing away from the border. 
14. Cut a 22" piece of backing fabric and batting and then sandwich together with top.
15. Quilt as desired, then trim and bind.

The blocks and directions will be available for free until April 15, and then will be moved to our website for purchase as a complete pattern. 

We hope that you have enjoyed learning some fun, new stitches during this stitch-along, and we are so grateful for your support and participation throughout this project. It is our hope (pun intended) to keep this group going with new projects every so often. We would love for you  to continue to share pictures of your progress with these little blooms. You never know how your post may encourage someone else!

Happy Hopeful Stitching!

Hopeful Flowers Block 4

Hopeful Flowers Block 3

Hopeful Flowers Block 2

Hopeful Flowers Block 1 

Hopeful Flowers Supply List

Hopeful Stitchers Facebook Group