Hobbit House Mini-Quilt

I snuck a mini-quilt in while working on My Next Project, because I needed to finish it for a deadline.  So I guess that rocking chair project was technically my next next project, but I didn't know it at the time, because I didn't think it would take as long as it's taking. 

I chose a design from Mary Engelbreit's The Art of Embroidery.   Take a second to click on my photo of the book, or the link that's on the title.  When you get to Amazon, look inside the book and the first project you see is the one I chose.

This is my version of it.  I needed to keep the quilt under 12", so I eliminated the right side of the triptych and resized the pattern in Photoshop so the width was 12".  Retaining proportion, the height became 8".

I spent sooooooooo much time picking out the colors and found it very vexing.  I was going for an updated Arts and Crafts look.  I wanted some of the muted green, brown, mustard, and rust that are classic Arts and Crafts colors, but I also wanted some cheeriness in it.  That's why I made a teal-colored tree.  And it's why I turned the four clumps of green bushes along the grass line into (from left to right) Purple Coneflowers, Asters, Rudbeckias, and more Asters.  It was hard to get purple and pink to go with the muted colors and that's what took so long.

I picked out the binding after I did 95% of the embroidery.  Too bad I didn't find the fabric first; it would have made pulling my color palette much easier.

Then I painted all of it except for the walls of the house.  The background fabric was a very coarse-weaved beige muslin, which looks like stucco.

This was the first time I painted fabric.  I didn't have any fabric paint, so I used watercolor paint.  It lasts well on paper, so I don't see why it shouldn't work on fabric.

The three strands of floss made a nice thick edging which corralled each paint color and kept it from running into an unwanted area.

The back.

Now I need to get back to my rocking chair project.