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Project QUILTING–Winter Tree Quilt–A Closer Look

June 15, 2013 by persimondreams 6 Comments

fatquartershop bundle

I just realized that I haven’t shared with you the story behind my entry ‘Winter Tree’ for the Project QUILTING Fat Quarter Shop Bundle Challenge – Tradition Times Three.  So – before I forget any longer, let’s take a look at how this quilt was created.  I had many ideas go through my mind until I finally decided on doing a squarey quilt inspired by a quilt I saw show up on my facebook feed.  My mother-in-law and her sister, Barb, are teaching squarey-quilts at the 2013 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat so this quilt would be for dual purposes:

  1. To fit the challenge
  2. be another example of what the retreat attendees can create with these blocks.

I always love a project that can be used for multiple purposes.

040913

Before I got too far – I knew that I had to alter some of the fabric colors.  The bonus bundle is very nautical and I wanted to do a tree.  I decided to use oil stix and rubbing plates to change the colors of some of the fabrics.  I rubbed copper and golds over the red fabrics to ‘dull’ the brightness and give it more of a ‘tree’ effect.  Since there would be metallics in the trunk I wanted to bring at least a little metallics into the other portion of the quilt so I rubbed silver oil stix paint over just some of the blue fabrics (sky) and some of the cream fabrics (snow/ground).  I think it helped to pull things together a bit by doing this and created even more dimension in the final quilt.

parchment rolls We were allowed to add up to two fabrics to our bundle and since I was lacking in the cream/white (snow/ground) department I decided to first add my original spoonflower fabric ‘Parchment Rolls’.

winterFor my second fabric I decided to go with a Wintergraphix Jason Yenter fabric from FabricFascination similar to the one shown above.  Instead of red swirls though, the color way I used had brown swirls.

Next – I needed to come up with my layout.  I’ll be honest.  I rarely plan my quilts let alone sketch what I wanted to do.  But for this one – I needed something to go by since color placement and size would be really important to get everything to fit all together and still look like a tree.

treeHere’s what my original sketch looked like.  I stayed pretty true to it with just some minor modifications to make the sizing and math a bit easier for me to work with.Fullscreen capture 6142013 93653 PM

I chose to basically do a courthouse steps log cabin block in the finished sizes of 3”, 6”, 9” and 12” (yes – I’m an overachiever…the challenge only required three sizes…I decided to go one step farther with four…)

Once my fabric was prepped, my design sketched and my block decided on it was just a matter of cut, sew, press, repeat.

It wasn’t too long until I had the top all pieced.  It did take me a bit more than normal just getting everything to fit into place and there were  a few ‘Y’ seams to be had but they went together really pretty smoothly.  At this point, I was just a few weeks away from the May deadline with my trip to North Carolina at the end of the month cutting my deadline by 7 days.  There was no time for me to send my quilt to Barb to quilt…I had to do it.  Squarey TreeSo, I loaded it onto my frame, took a deep breathe and went for it.

IMG_8044 I used a gorgeous, rich blue Aurifil thread in the top (seriously – how have I never used Aurifil before – AMAZING!) and white Superior Bottom Line thread in my bobbin.  The quilting on this took just a few hours with only minor issues.   Squarey Tree I decided to do an all over meander with a swirl in the inner square of the block…basically the same pattern Barb did on one of my very first squarey quilts.  I loved it so much I thought – why no?Squarey Tree ENTRY

I was so amazed!  When I pulled it off the frame – it was straight!  It was my biggest quilt that was a success quilting myself to date! I was super happy.  Now – it was time to bind.  I put a ‘lip’ of Parchment Rolls around the edge first and then finished it up with a solid kona blue binding.  karmen quilts 1

photo taken by Karmen Linder Photography

I frantically hand-stitched the binding on so I could include it in my random ‘Pop Up Outdoor Quilt Show’ and so Karmen could get it in a few shots.

Whew!  I made it just in time and I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out!  I would love to hear what you think of my quilt ‘Winter Tree’.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Roslyn says

    June 15, 2013 at 6:31 pm

    This is amazing. Very inspired. You are so talented and I love hearing about your creative process.

    Reply
  2. PersimonDreams says

    June 16, 2013 at 8:51 pm

    Thanks so much Roslyn! I'm glad I could share with you 🙂

    Reply
  3. CitricSugar says

    June 19, 2013 at 12:02 am

    Thanks for sharing a bit about your process! This was one of my favourites from the festival and it's nice to have the insight into its creation.

    Reply
  4. Janice says

    July 3, 2013 at 8:30 am

    This is a gorgeous quilt! I love 'tree' quilts, but this one is just stunning and so different from what I have. Love, love, love it!!! You did an amazing job!

    Reply
  5. PersimonDreams says

    July 3, 2013 at 9:23 am

    Thanks so much! It was really fun to create this one!

    Reply
  6. Louise says

    July 3, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    This is one of those wonderful quilts I wished I would have designed myself! Beautiful! Great job!

    Reply

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