Quilt Reveal: One Tree

 

 

I was minding my own business, thinking about what fabric to use for the binding for the camel quilt that I didn't manage to finish last year. It is a small quilt and a thought occurred to me that I am so glad the Project Quilting challenge helped motivate me to finish a bunch of small quilts early last year. Then, I wondered about when they would start a new challenge. I looked up the blog and see that a challenge has already been announced! It is The First One. This was on Thursday, which means my time to complete it is even more limited than usual. But it should be an easy challenge since you can just use one of something. 

Before I could even decide whether I am willing to do the challenge with such limited time, I clicked on a YouTube video of Irene of Sugaridoo showing her WIPs. One of them was her One Two Tree quilt that was a part of a quilt-along that I wanted to join but was too busy at the time. The pattern is free if you click on the link. 

Did you notice the word One in the title? What if I just make one tree and use that as my challenge? It looks like a very simple tree and looks like it will be quick to make.

Zoey, cancel all my plans. I need an emergency quilt retreat!

Then I got the bright idea that I could use one color - all greens - to really use the "One "rule. Of course it makes it harder to match the fabric. No, just add a beige and a brown and it will be fine. I found two other greens that will be fine with it. The good thing about Project Quilting is that because the deadline is so short, the first decision has to be the one I run with. There is no time for indecision when I have to get the quilt made on time.

 This Debbie Mumm acorn fabric has been sitting in my stash for a long time. One year, when I was trying to reduce the amount of fabric I had, I thought about giving it up. There is something about the shade of green that didn't really seem to match any other fabric. So I decided to use it for this project. I had been thinking about reducing the size of the tree, but once I found this fabric, I figured I could use up more if I made it full size.

I didn't take any in progress photos so now you can see the finished quilt photos. If any of you are complaining that there is black in the acorn fabric and white, yellow and pink in the background fabric, don't be hating on the fabric designers. They didn't know I would want to make an all green quilt in 2023. Besides, since I usually buy fabric on clearance, they wouldn't cater to my needs even if they did know.

Here it is, my family tree.

 

The original pattern calls for paper piecing, but I used improv to make the corners of the tree. The video makes it look easy, but I decided I didn't have the patience to learn it in a day. It worked out well. I had to piece the batting. I quilted a grid on it, like one of the quilts Irene made. Even though I used a walking foot, it did form a couple little tucks. Since I was just making some organic lines, some of the lines look like I missed the ditch, but I wasn't aiming for the ditch.

I was able to use the acorn fabric for the back as well.

Usually, to join the binding, I tuck it into the other part of the binding and applique it. This time, I sewed it properly. So I don't have the lump I get in some of my quilts, no matter how small I try to make the overlap.

So I made a modern quilt using Debbie Mumm fabric. It is mighty tempting to add some embellishment, but I will resist.

 For its glamor shot, I tried to find a stuffed animal, but I don't have a squirrel. I do have this applique template, but now I am tempted to add a squirrel.

2023: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 1

I am so happy that Kate is hosting the 15 Minutes to Stitch again this year. She made a beautiful button for it too. 

I have a strong finish to start off the year, working on the camel and the tree.

 

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 7 out of 7 days

Success rate  = 100%

Edited to add: I couldn't resist.

It doesn't look as lumpy in real life as it does in the photo.

Tree Quilts

In February, I curated some red and white quilts to show you.  A virtual High Road Museum, if you will.  In French, that would be Musée de la Grande Route, which sounds fabulous to me, so welcome back to my museum. I don't know French so if that isn't right, please let me know.

Since I showed you a finished tree quilt yesterday, I decided to find my collection of tree quilts to show you.  I added a label for that to some of my older posts, and hope that didn't mess up your blog feed.

This is the quilt I showed you yesterday. It uses scraps of actual 1930s fabric and reproductions as the background. The tree in the foreground is also a scrap. The same fabric was cut up in circles for the leaves and the trunk. It is completely hand stitched.



This one is another summertime quilt that is made with scraps. In this one, the background is plain while the focal point uses the scraps.  This quilt is also raw edge applique, but it is machine stitched, and has some added embroidery.



This quilt also has a tree, although the tree is not the main feature.  It uses fabrics that are not cotton. They are raw edge and machine stitched. So if you were thinking I don't know how to make a tree when you saw the other ones, you can see that I have made some progress.

This improv quilt is machine pieced.  I used some older fabric that was in the stash. It is machine stitched and quilted.


All of the other quilts I showed you are small quilts. This larger quilt is a wholecloth quilt. There is a large variety of buttons which are stitched to the quilt.

Thank you for visiting Musée de la Grande Route.  We hope you come again soon.

Quilt Reveal: Thirties Boro

May I introduce you to my mini quilt of the month for the month of August?

Last year, I was working with my thirties yo-yo quilt.  It is still a work in progress, but in the meantime, I had some precious scraps that will not work for that quilt.  There are so many wonderful ways to use the scraps, but I decided to make a boro quilt.

Here's the video that I used. I even pressed the quilted quilt, which I don't normally do.



Collages have a tendency to look awful until they are finished. It is a fine balance to take the time to make a pleasing arrangement, but avoid the overthinking that would make it look predictable and boring.

Once it was stitched down, it probably would have looked fine with a binding, but I decided it needed something more. Collage quilts are quite popular right now. I see quilts designed by Laura Heine everywhere right now in my internet surfing. I decided to add a focal point. I probably should have chosen a more interesting focal point, but I had the big piece of green fabric and I thought of circles.  It was late at night when the circles turned into a tree.

The tree applique and some other stitching form the quilting stitches.

The circles puff a little bit to make it look dimensional.

The threads are leftover pieces from the quote quilt. I added some stitching that goes a different direction just to secure more of the long edges.  I like how the tree makes you look at the other shapes again to try to figure out what they are. Is that a mailbox? A sign? Or another tree?

In true Shasta style, here is the back.

It is approximately 9" x 12".

Linked with:
DrEAMi

Quote Quilt Progress

Sometimes I hesitate to post a midweek progress post, in case there isn't anything picture-worthy to post at the end of the week. I hesitated this week too, but I have plenty more to show you that I added to the quote quilt during the second half of the week.

This elephant comes from a fabric that I purchased myself. It is probably the only fabric I have ever bought for myself that was bought at full price.   I have heard of the philosophy that instead of buying lots of things on sale, you should buy that one special thing that brings your heart joy, even if you pay more for it.  I waited for months for it to go on sale, and it never did, so finally I decided to go ahead and buy it anyway while it was still available.

This gray fabric is from the Maximalist quilt. It makes me happy to see fabric from other quilts in this one. Many of the blue fabrics are from my other quilts too - the ones that weren't made by other people.

In my last post, I said I was using broderie perse.  While it is technically true, I think of broderie perse as a collage of motifs that form their own, new motif. This flowerpot is made from three different pieces of fabric.

Here are the leaves I have added to this tree thus far.  There are probably enough leaves, but I might still add more.

Since I had the quilt outside to take the photos, I am showing you a full photo. The top is on the left side so you will have to turn your head to see it. Those white blobs on top of and underneath the elephant are drawings of new motifs that I plan to add in those places.

Waterfront Property

2020:  Week 12 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

We had a lot of flooding this week due to heavy rain.  Many roads were closed, some were damaged, and some people in a nearby town were evacuated.  Many of my neighbors reported water in their basements. My backyard was flooded but there was only a small trickle of water in the basement. Water did get into the garage, but most things are stored off the floor so it should be all right.

That orange stuff in the picture, because I was wondering, are flowers that fell from the neighbor's maple tree.


On the employment front, there is a strong probability that the project I am working on will be cancelled or delayed. We continued to work on getting everything set up for the busy period.  On Friday, we got a notice that there isn't any new information, but I have a feeling that there will be a notice on Monday, or that there might already be a notice in my work email.


Two of my family members have already been laid off, and two of them have been sent home to  school from home.

As I write this, the Ohio governor has just enacted a stay at home order, which tightens the restrictions even further, which means even more of the family are laid off.

I worked on the quote quilt this week.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7
15 minute days this year -- 82 out of 82 days
Success rate  = 100%

Quilt Reveal: Red and White Tree

Two quilt reveals in a row!  I am on a roll!

The last time you saw this quilt, it looked like this:

This is a third generation of the red and white quilts, and I was pretty sick of the red and white by now.  I've already learned that the fabric looks pink from a distance and doesn't even play nicely as a red and white quilt, so making a third one of these was irritating me.  Whoever made up the arbitrary rule that I should keep making red and white quilts?

I looked at the package I won, and back at this quilt, and decided the green would look quite nice as apples.  I know you and I both thought that the red could be leaves or apples, but we were both wrong; the apples are green. Since this was supposed to be a scrap quilt, I found some other scraps that might work and brought them downstairs. (Yes there is a blue apple and yes I did that on purpose.)

I added a sun to the top left corner, because all of the drawings I made as a child had one of those. I didn't color very dark as a child so the fact that this sun isn't very bright is fitting.

We had a power outage and I decided to work on this quilt by candlelight. I did not get a chance to audition the fabric, but I kept telling myself "You have a red tree. Does it really matter what color this is?" The eyes are big because I didn't dare to make them any smaller. There is no way I would have found them if I dropped them. I like how the baby bird looks like it is about to fly. Maybe it is a flying lesson. Or animatedly telling Mama what happened at school.

I added the grass, and teased it  so it would fray.  I had to add a doggie. It doesn't look like Zeus, but it does look like a dog. I put him on top of the grass, because that is what I would have done in kindergarten.  This dog is so light, he walks on blades of grass.

I used some tulle to cover the quilt before quilting.  The gluestick was old and the glue is washable and I wanted to make sure everything stayed properly in place. I was worried that the glue might stick to the needle and make it difficult to quilt, but it didn't. The tulle makes the blue look like denim from a distance.

 
 I made cloud-like scribbles in the tree as I would as a child. I also added diagonal lines across the background to represent the rays of the sun.  Let's see, I have apples, birds and a dog on the quilt. A, B, D.  It seemed like I needed something that started with the letter C. I thought "color" might be too obscure.  I didn't want car or cat, so I had to look in the dictionary for other C words.  I added a clover.  While I had the embroidery thread out, I added other little bits around the quilt too, which you can see in the pictures throughout this post.

And in case that doesn't look like clover, or think shamrock instead of clover, I added a little carving in the tree.

Here's the finished quilt. I used the same apple green fabric for a wide binding. I wound up having a seam in the bottom left corner, making it bulky, but I think it is okay.

Here it is with its parent.The grandparent quilt had to be sent to the nursing home because there wasn't enough room for it.  This quilt was a lot of fun to make from start to finish.

Linked to:
ScrapHappy Saturday 
Let's Bee Social

Button Season

Ta-da! I have bound this wholecloth quilt, and added a hanging sleeve.  I have also placed buttons randomly in some of the spaces. So far, no duplicates.   I plan on adding more, so it is not quite a finished quilt yet, but am waiting to get more from Mom first.

This is hanging on the railing of my front porch. Note that the railing is now white.   I have finally painted the railings. I got help with the roof. I will work cleaning up paint spills and then staining the floor next.

Linked to:
Moving It Forward 
Monday Making

Block 11 Life of Plenty

Part 11 of A Life of Plenty is finished.  I'm obviously not going in numerical order, since I showed you Part 14 last time. I was telling my sister that I was working on a quilt I started last year and showed her the pattern.  Do you see it? It is copyrighted in 2014. Yes, I started this quilt last year in 2014.

There is something about a weeping willow that really intrigues me. It looks so different from the usual tree. I was really happy when I saw that Jeni incorporated one of them into the quilt.

I have been trying to improve the quality of my applique as I go along. I think that I did pretty well on the trunk and branches (until I saw this closeup haha), but these leaves are much smaller than the leaves in the last block. I'm sure the next block will be better.