Winter Trees: Mini Quilt #10

Last Fall I purchased a small amount of a Cotton and Steel Print by Sarah Watts (from the August collection), and when I cut some of it into strips for another project I made the pleasant discovery that this fabric really looks like Birch bark.  Naturally, I went and bought more immediately!  I am really excited to make use of this fabric in an improvisationally pieced tree quilt.

I found a stash Kona cotton in a color that was very close to the color of the teal green splotches in the tree print which worked perfectly as the background fabric.  I started by cutting a rectangle of the general size I was thinking about and then used a straight edge and rotary cutter to slash the fabric where the trees and branches would go.  No measuring involved! (at least at this point-)

I went with a fabric from Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics line for the backing because I liked incorporating the leaf imagery.

For the quilting design, I wanted to evoke a feeling of winter.  While I’m not generally a big fan of snow, especially this time of year, I do like watching great big fluffy snowflakes fall into drifts.  I decided to use a quilting design of various size bubbles in light blue to give that winter snow storm feeling.

The binding is a slate colored piece from Jan Patek’s Front Porch line.  I knew this little quilt wanted a striped binding, and it was fun to find a fabric from such a different line than Cotton and Steel, and make them play together so nicely.  I’m considering doing one of these little tree quilts for every season . . .

Quilt Stats

Title:  Winter Trees

Size:  15.5″ x 19″

Techniques:  Improvisational Piecing

Quilting:  Stitch in the ditch along the edges of the tree shapes, free motion quilting in a bubble motif

Fabrics:  Sarah Watts (Cotton and Steel- August Collection), Carolyn Friedlander (Botanics), Kona Cotton, Jan Patek (Front Porch)

Batting:  Warm and White Cotton Batting

Thread:  Connecting Threads Essential Thread in Persian Blue,  light blue cotton machine quilting thread

Binding:  2″ wide strips, cut on grain, machine stitched to the quilt front, hand stitched to the back.

What was new:

“Tree” Improv!  I have never done improv piecing with the intention of making it look like a particular object.

I’m linking this post up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts.  Please stop by to check out everyone’s awesome work!