This block was fun because I haven’t done much embroidery, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it and how well it came out. I wasn’t sure how to quilt around embroidery so I did a little research and found (unsurprisingly) that you don’t quilt over it.

I started with gold thread in the very center, with four small arcs to soften the square a little. Then I switched to red thread to fill in the echoes in the triangles. To make them come out evenly, I used a chalk pencil and ruler to draw a line bisecting the triangle from its inner point to the middle of the long side along the block edge. Then I marked out points on the line about 1/4″ apart, or a little wider. I used the ruler to mark chalk lines from each outer corner to the points on the line, which gave me the echo lines. I quilted along those lines, but not along the original bisecting line, pausing at the bisecting line to get that sharp point.

Quick and easy except that I had to break thread after each triangle, which meant a lot of knots to bury (two per triangle). I didn’t want to risk the red thread showing on the cream stripes behind the embroidery if I traveled around the corners.

The Wishful Garden is block 35 of The Splendid Sampler and was designed by Kristyne Czepuryk, whose own version of this block is a delightful confection.