I will start this week with a moment of honesty…. this is the first and possible only Crossword I have ever completed. I have started many a crossword but never, ever completed one. My mum does the crossword daily, and does a stellar job of getting them complete, but not me. So without further ado, here is my one and only completed crossword….
I started this Crossword last year, when I was asked to review Cheryl Arkison’s book, A Month of Sundays. While flipping through the book I saw this pattern and fell in love.
The top came together easily using a collection of white/cream/light grey low volume prints and black and white prints. The pattern is gentle but very effective.
The black and white prints give you the squares of the crossword, with the creams giving the background a real newspaper feel.
I dug deep into my stash, as well as the stash of a couple of helpful friends to get enough black and white text prints…. and then tried to keep the supporting black and white prints very graphic.
You may have noticed the fabulous quilting on this project… I can safely say that it was not my doing. This quilt top is huge and I could not drag it through my home machine, let alone create such a wonderful pattern. The Crossword was quilted by the talented Jolene Knight, on of our Guild long-armers.
I love the rhythm of the undulating curves of this quilt. It is soft and gentle and really perfect for this quilt. Jolene kindly quilted this baby up for me as the finished quilt will be donated as part of the PMQG’s Charity program.
For the back of the quilt I used a slab of text print, which seemed a perfect fit…
And the finishing touch was a scrappy grey binding that I machine attached.
This is just one of the quilts I decided to get finished and donate. Earlier this year I took stock of my rather large collection of UFO’s and decided I needed to get most of them finished and donated. Unfinished blocks and tops do not do anyone any good…while a completed quilt can do so much…
QUILT DETAILS:
Pattern: Crossword by Cheryl Arkison
Fabric: Low volume scraps and B/W prints
Finished Size: 68 x 72 inches
WOMBAT QUILTS 
Love love love this!!!
What a wonderful project! Perfect fabric choices too! 🙂
If you never do another one again, you’ll still be a champion crossworder! I also love the scallop quilting she’s done, I used the same design when hand quilting the quilt that lives on our bed, because I think it gives such a lovely rippling texture – especially nice after it’s been washed. Lovely job!
Fantasterrific quilt, Cath! And, “Huzzah” to your mum as a rare but real crosswords puzzle completer. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of crosswords I’ve completed.
Love this!! The scrappy binding is the perfect finishing touch!!
A gorgeous quilt, and the clamshell qilting suits it wornderfully. I wish I could get some of my work longarm quilted, though I have decided I will make no more large quilts. I don’t have UFOs as I wouldn’t sleep easily if I did!
Lovely quilt! I think I can honestly say I’ve at most finished 3 crosswords in my life so I know the feeling, I much prefer your quilted one! ❤
The quilting is beautiful!
Yes, “fell in love” exactly describes my feeling when the first image popped up. You’ve done a really fab job of keeping that crossword vibe without being too cute. I hope it ultimate recipient enjoys your beautiful work.
Beautiful!
Very cute quilt
What a fortunate gift for it’s recipient!! Very generous gift. You have a lovely spirit and it always shows in your quilts.
Excellent! Congrats on such a lovely finish!
This is really cool! I like it alot!
I love this! Very clever design, terrific fabric choices and wonderful clamshell quilting, who could ask for more. Great job (but how can you bare to let it out of your hands?)
Ein toller quilt 🙂
Viele Grüße aus Deutschland Karo
I like the low volume background. It’s more interesting than using a single background fabric! cheers!
Very cool pattern, I can see why you were keen to make it; you have done a lovely job and the quilting is great too.
A very pretty crossword and much more useful than a “real” finished one too.
the crossword pattern and your fabric choices are beautiful — the quilting is stunning.
I love love love love this! I’ve been thinking about trying the quilting pattern and this has convinced me to try it. Plus, it has all of the love and thoughtfulness that you put into all your quilts.
What a sweet quilt. That quilting pattern is so nice.
Fantastic choice of fabrics – I would be very pleased with myself if I had managed to make this:))
It finished wonderfully! I am thrilled that you were taken with the original. It remains one of my all time favourites.
This is absolutely beautiful, Cath. I can see why the pattern had you itching to make it. You are very good to such a beauty.
I love crosswords. The cryptic ones stumped until a few years ago, when I found an online video tutorial that helped me make sense of them. I haven’t done a crossword in a while, but my husband still does them all the time and asks me when he gets stuck.