The States In Which I've Lived

A couple of years ago I scored cool cross stitch patterns by Sue Hillis Designs for the states I've lived in.  I knew I wanted to do them all on one piece of cloth and that presented a mathematical issue.  I suck at math and I really didn't know what I was doing.  Which resulted in CA being ripped out and restitched.  It's not as centered together as I would have liked but I can live with it.  

The other thing was that the pattern showed some pictures that were either in the wrong places or not items the states are known for.  That meant I had to omit, add and change a great deal.  

I did all the state outlines, rivers, state names and surrounding water first before working on the pictures.

First was MA.  There were a few things that made me scratch my head, such as why potatoes and a tobacco leaf were pictured.  I actually googled both of them to see if they were serious cash crops in MA and they aren't.  At all.  Corn on Cape Cod?  Not so much, no.  

I took all the potatoes out and stitched a bunch of cranberries above and below Plymouth.  The tobacco leaf is done in oranges for our foliage.  Technically the spool of thread should've been in Southeastern Mass, but it wouldn't fit.  The textile mills were in New Bedford and Fall River, not way out in the Berkshires.  I omitted the milk can under Plymouth too.  I also felt that the full 2 strand cross stitching of the water around the coastline and islands was way too overpowering, so I changed that to single strand half cross.  Finally, I added a red heart to where I lived.

Maine was less problematic, symbol-wise.  They actually are known for potatoes.  There are a few ski resorts, tons of pine trees and agriculture.  

The only change to this was again, the half cross for the water, and the added heart next to Sebago Lake, above Portland.

California was also fairly accurate with the symbols.

I did omit a boat and added my own little Golden Gate Bridge.  Hearts in SF and in Marin.  Oh and I also added a tiny Lake Tahoe at the bend under the N in Sacramento.  It bugged me that the pattern didn't include it and had just the white space.  Tahoe straddles the California-Nevada Line at the bend.

I saved Washington for last because I was looking forward to doing it the most, but also because the symbols were almost all wrong and would take a lot of fixing and moving. 

The first thing I noticed was that the Columbia River went down to the border b/t the apple and tractor and stopped.  I did a half cross stitch all along the southern border and joined it with the Pacific coast.  

Next, I had to move the wheat stalk from under Olympia and put it in Eastern WA, where the wheat actually grows.  I moved the cow head over because of the dairy farms in Western WA.  I also added the cities of Spokane, Yakima and Bellingham.  Omitted the potatoes again.  Added the heart and a Mt. Rainier which also kinda looks like the Tacoma Dome which is OK with me.  The Olympic peninsula showed a giant milk can.  I'm sorry but there's nothing out there but wilderness, rainforests and mountains, no farms.  I added Lakes Crescent, Ozette & Quinault and the evergreen trees too.

The final product!!  

Still have to try and find a frame and then even harder, finding a place to hang it!