Witch wall hanging

Last month sometime I came across a wall hanging that I started a long time ago, in Apr/04. This wall hanging was a case of chewing off more than I could handle.  The little bitty squares are only 1/2" finished.  To answer your unspoken question, yes I was crazy.  All I can say for myself is that I like a challenge.

I started with a needle point picture that I thought was sooooo cute. It comes from a magazine called Cross Stitch & Needlework October 1996 issue.  The pattern is called Harvest Witch by Lorri Birmingham.

I still really like the pattern, but I did not want to make another cross-stitch.  By this time I was fully into making quilts.  A while before I had seen a quilt made from the pattern of a cross-stitch, so I thought I would try it.  Little did I realize that the pattern I saw at the time was a small and easy piece. 

I started with graph paper to enlarge the squares and because I had to re-draft it to remove all the half squares and multi coloured thread blocks.  On the top right hand side I also included my coloured ledger with symbols.

From there I took that coloured ledger with symbols and started shopping for fabrics to use.  I made a couple of sheets showing the symbols that would match the fabrics I chose(shown taped to the lid of my blue container in the picture below).  I cut out a lot of 1" stripes, and cut them into 1" squares and organized them in this blue container with dividers.

I did assemble about ten rows before I realized what I had actually gotten myself into.  So this project ended up going away until I could figure out how to make it easier.  A few years later, I learned about a product that people use to do this sort of thing.  It is a fusible interfacing that has a grid on the one side(seen in the picture above).  The grid is 1" squares.  All of a sudden I had a renewed interest in doing this wall hanging again, so out it came.

I did the bottom 1/8th of the wall hanging before I stopped.  I found the interfacing made the piece vary stiff.  It was definitely precise with the sewing lines there for you to follow, but I could not deal with the way it felt.  So again, I put it away.  Waiting for another source of inspiration on how to tackle this project. 

Last month sometime it came to me.  I figured that I could tackle this bit by bit.  Making smaller sections which would be more manageable.  I will do it the regular way by sewing tiny block to tiny block, in sections of ten by ten.  Once they are done I will sew these "somewhat" larger blocks together.  The part that I am thinking will be easier is that instead of using the grid for the base, I will be using it to hold all the colour pieces in order.  I will call these my maps.

The above picture is two of the ten by ten blocks side by side.  This way I do all the sorting first, so now I just have to sew them.  Knowing this will still be a long term project, I figure this way I wound not have to try and figure out where I am, each and every time I take it out to work on.

As of today I have all of the wall hanging mapped out and ready to sew.  I am not willing to let this project go,  I really do still like it.

I will keep you all up to date on my progress, but a word of warning, it will be very sporadic.  It's not on the top of my list.  I do feel more positive now though, that this will get worked on and eventually finished.