Fall Tree Project

Fall Tree project

Although I'm finally posting my finished Fall Tree Project, it has been completed for a couple of weeks. I think that it's the best work I've done to date. This project is not my own creation since I used a pattern and took Elaine Qhehl's workshop. It is, however my adaptation and I'm really impressed! I know that doesn't sound very humble, but I'm surprised by how well it turned out given the changes I made to the original project.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, adding the leaves was time consuming and an little challenging. I really wanted to get it "right". As I looked at the trees changing colours this fall, I finally figured out that there is no "right" way, since changing leaves don't following only one pattern.

Sometimes they changed mostly at the tips, or where the sun kissed them the most. At other times, it seemed to be all over the place. I also noticed that although a tree might be changing predominantly to red, there were still hints of yellow and orange. And of course, there were usually touches of green here and there.

Elaine Qhehl's original tree

Since this is my representation of a tree changing colours in the fall, I'll admit that to have done it "right", the tree should have had maple leaves. Around Ottawa, Ontario, that seems to be the only type of tree this size, that would have red leaves. However, since I've never been able to draw a maple leaf (as Canadians we try since it's on our flag!) that wasn't even an option. So here it is - my representation!

Unfortunately my photos' colours are inconsistent. I was hoping to take a photo of the quilt near the burning bush in my back yard, but the leaves fell the day before the photo shoot. All that was left on the tree after the blustery day were the berries. It really was fall.

Here's a recap of the project. If you want more details see the posts, Creating a Tree and Tree Project Almost Finished.

1. Creating the tree trunk

2. Attaching the trunk to the background

4. Blocking, cutting and quilting

3. Adding the leaves

What I learned:

• Quilting around the leaves was the best strategy and it worked. It made the leaves pop.
• The tree trunk required a lot of quilting to keep it flat.
• I was nervous about using only one colour of thread to FMQ around the leaves but it looks just fine.
• I wanted to bind the quilt but I didn't like the look. I ended up creating a facing using Terry Aske's tutorial. The images above were taken before I added the facing, but it came out great.

Fall Tree by the burning bush

It took me so long to finish this project that I've already started two new landscape art quilts. You may have seen the beginning of the first one, Mountainview Workshop in my last blog. I'm also creating a quilt to accompany some vignettes that I'm writing for my Memories Into Story course. This will be a true multi-media piece that will incorporate landscape art quilt with writing. I'm looking forward to presenting it soon.

I have linked to the following linky parties: MOP Monday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, Link-A-Finish Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Free Motion Mavericks