The Little Trees

Making trees on quilts is not a new idea. Making these kinds of trees on quilts is not a new idea. Maybe appliquéing them with the zig zag stitch is a new idea? Probably not. Whatever, I had great great fun creating these little quilts on my Sisters quilting retreat with BF Robin.

Brought them home, and of course, none of them were exactly square, or exactly the same size. Because that’s how I work. I like working that way, and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, USUALLY at some point, you do want to square a quilt up. In this case, after measuring all of them, I decided that I would make all of them 17 inches square. I had kept all the leftover scraps from that project in one place. I KNOW, how organized of me! Anyway, I looked at each, and decided on how I would like to frame each one. I do love how they came out. Each is different, but they are all slightly related, as I drew from the same group of fabrics as I worked on them, and then as I framed them.

Next, the quilting!

Almost Done

Another Psalm quilt almost finished. Can you spot the problem in this photo?

Yes, it is 24″ across the top and only 23″ across the bottom. I do this to myself far too frequently. I don’t start out with a perfectly squared up piece of fabric (that part is okay.) But then I do this extensive embroidery ALL THE WAY TO THE EDGE  (that part is not okay.) Because then I hate to cut that embroidery off, so I fudge when I am squaring up the quilt and end up with a trapezoid. Sigh. I will be squaring it up later today, and putting a binding on tomorrow (binding is such heinous work, it is not suitable for Sunday.)

I am very happy with how this quilt turned out. I don’t usually have the words picked out when I start a quilt composition. As this one progressed, and the birds became more of a focal point, I came upon this Psalm (92) about singing and praise. It seemed perfect for this quilt, and the phrases I wanted to include fit perfectly in the blank spaces I had left for the writing.

Some close-ups:

Adding the french knots in the circles is something a little new.

I got a couple of good days in the studio last week. I’ll share another project soon!