The Trees in the Forest

I'm still not feeling the love with these trees. I like several of them individually, but as a group, they aren't singing for me yet.  I've been using fabrics from my stash, and it might be a good idea for me to do some stash replenishing. I'll keep playing with this, partly because I have also cut fabrics to make some smaller trees, and because I have  a stack of fabrics on my cutting table that aren't represented in the photo above.

Autumn Trees

It's funny how things work. I've been thinking about making a quilt of autumn trees for an October table quilt, and then I look around blogland, and a lot of quilters are making trees.

So I've been gathering up some fabrics from my stash. Here are some greens.

Here are some tans and golds. I'll want to add an occasional red and orange tree, but I want to see where this goes first.

In the meantime I've cut some strips of fabric and divided it up so I can get some really big trees and some little ones. The oranges in the middle may or may not be the tree trunks, I haven't decided yet.

This is the way I usually work. I get an idea, and even if the idea isn't fully formed in my head, I get started. I know I'll make changes and get new ideas which I will incorporate and I'll find things that don't work and I'll leave them out. The important thing for me is to get started, to explore, and that's what I am doing.

A Little Welcome - with an Update

Like the Artist Alphonse Mucha, I don't like empty space.

When I come home each day, I'm confronted with this homely space on my side door. When the weather warms up, I'll paint the door pink, like the letters in Monday's post, but the space will still be empty.

  I measured it, and thought about something quilted to put there. It would have to describe me and what I do. A little Welcome panel with a house and a tree would be just the ticket. There would be a cat in the window, of course, and maybe a lady at a sewing machine.  With one square at one inch, the letters would have to be petite, but I think it would be a lovely addition.

Update:

Megan, The door faces North, so it never gets any direct sun. The entryway is covered with an awning, so it never gets wet from rain or snow, and in New England we have an addtional "storm door" in the winter. In the summer, the window gets replaced with a screen, so the fresh air can come in, but the bugs stay out. The little quilt will be well protected and last a long time (until I get bored and decide to replace it.)

Kathy, by all means, steal away. As Picasso said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Charlotte, the door is textured metal. Painting it would require special paints and more time and effort than I am willing to expend. Besides, I like having the option to change my mind.

Sharon, am I going to piece the letters? Is the sky blue? Is the Pope Catholic? They sure aren't going to be applique'd! LOL! Thanks for the laugh.

Houses and Trees, Oh My!

My class at Quilted Threads was small, only four ladies, but they worked hard, asked good questions and did some great work.

This is Sharon's finished panel.

I love the fabric Sharon chose for the body of the house, and her mailbox is absolutely divine!

This is Sue's panel:

Sue wanted a house in the winter. She had forgotten a box of tools and fabrics at home, so we all lent her whatever she needed.

This is Lori's house.

Lori used vivid fabrics for her house, and then asked for help to choose the background. We brought several bolts of fabric to the classroom to try them all out and she selected this large print. I think it's terrific.

This is Kiersten's house.

Kiersten fixed the tree on the right (added some background fabric under the branches, then added another tree to the left of it. Later she will add stairs in front of the door.

The ladies asked very good questions, and kept me on my toes the whole day. They never settled for "the usual", but kept pushing ideas around until they got the results they wanted.


We all had a great day!

Ideas

Have you got a friend who gives you terrific ideas? The ideas are always good, and you just have to go for it?

My friend Tracey is like that. She doesn't quilt, but she is very creative, smart and funny as all get out.  When I was working out my Four Seasons Quilt, she suggested make the scenes at different times of the day.  In the end I decided not to do that, but the idea has stayed with me.  Last night I arranged these eight fabrics, ground on the bottom, sky on top, as showing not only the four seasons, but four different times of day.

I wouldn't arrange them all lined up like that, but more like this, reading clockwise.

I had always liked this little sketch I did back then,

with the houses in the middle and the trees around the edges. I thought this way the trees could blend from one season to the other in a much more interesting way.

I have a lot to think about. I cleaned the sewing studio over the weekend, so I am ready for a new project.  I also visited Quilted Threads, which had a big sale, and I confess I added to my stash. I also swapped out Nine x Nine for The White Cat's Rules.  My Four Seasons quilt is being quilted and will be on display at the shop when it is finished.

Surrounded!

I sewed the borders on to the Four Seasons quilt last night. The finished outer border won't be quite so wide, but I do think the binding will be the same batik-y blue.

With a little luck the weather will be mild enough so I can take the quilt outside and get a really decent photo.  Now I have to prepare the how-to's for the quilt-along.

Oh boy, you should see the barns that Julie is making! She's going to put me to shame!

Border Wars

That's an exaggeration, of course.  It was more like Border Auditions.  I always knew I wanted a blue around the edges of the Four Seasons quilt, to make you think of the sky that is common all over the world.  So here is the blue.  Lovely color, lovely fabric, but it's definitely lacking something.

My good friend Julie suggested a thin inner border of a darker blue.

 That didn't do anything for me either.  I thought, "It needs a purple inner border."

So I tried a reddish violet, and immediately liked the way it looked.

Here is what it will look like.  I am thinking the skinny border may be about a half inch wide, and the outer blue will be about 3-1/2" or so.  I haven't sewn anything down yet, I've just laid the strips around the flimsy to see.  Looks like I will finish this flimsy before New Year's!

Four Seasons Panels

Here are the panels for my Four Seasons Quilt. They haven't been sewn together yet. The panels are about 37 - 39" wide and about 55" tall.

The quilt-a-long will begin about mid-January.  Happy Holidays!

Four Seasons Panels Complete

I have finished the four panels of my Four Seasons quilt. They aren't sewn together yet. I brought them to Quilted Threads to find a fabric for the border. Here I am auditioning a few of them.  You can see the discards at the end of the table. I did find a fabric, and it wasn't any of these.

Summer Cat

You really didn't think I wouldn't have a cat in the Summer panel, did you?

Summer House

Here's the finished Summer house.  I've had a guest visiting for the last couple of days so I haven't done any sewing. I hope to have the Summer panel done by the end of the weekend.

The Hammock

A great place to while away a lovely summer afternoon is swinging from a hammock in the shade of some trees.

The hammock is made from fabric with letterscript on it because when I think of lying in a hammock, I think of reading a good book. 

To get an idea of the size of the hammock, the space surrounding it is about two inches tall by about three inches wide.  The tree trunks are about 1/4" wide.






***As for Freecycle in this city, I signed up on Friday morning, got an automatic reply telling me to read the rules and respond. I did so Friday night, and now, three full days later, I still haven't heard one word.

Yvonne asks a Question

Yvonne asked a question when I was talking to her last week and it really got me thinking.  She was talking about the Four Seasons panels and she asked "Do you draw them out first?"

It caught me totally off guard. I hadn't drawn the Spring panel, and I didn't like it. I had done a drawing of the Winter panel and it had come out well. 

I was working on the Autumn panel,

 and I had drawn that one too. 

I really had to think about it. Why do I draw sometimes, but not all the time?


Now it sounds silly, but you've all heard the quote by Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else," and it's a lot like that.  

I don't always know where I'm going when I get started, but once I do get going, I get a pretty good idea of where I want to go.  The details will change, but that's ok. I don't need to have a complete idea to get started. Sometimes I don't have ANY idea at all, but getting going gives me a point at which to start - it helps me figure out what I like and what I don't.

I draw because it's a way to get an idea out of my head and down on paper so I can remember what I want to do.

It's also a way for me to work out an idea when I can't sew.

And this give you all a peek into what the Summer panel will look like!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

When I finished the Spring panel, it didn't thrill me.  I liked the elements, and the colors, but to me it was a little boring.

I tried inserting an "overlapping" tree, and thought it would help. It did, but the house still looked a bit stiff and un Spring-like.

So I set it aside. I made the Winter panel, and I made the Autumn panel. I liked both of those. I knew I wanted to fix the Spring panel without starting from scratch, so I took the pieces apart and remade the house.

That was better, but it was only when I started rearranging the trees, (and adding a small pink one) that I really started liking it a lot better.

So now I'm happy.

Revised Trees

I lightened up the green trees. Actually all I did was replace the front tree fabric and its trunk fabric.  What bothered me about the original version was how dark it was compared to the rest of the panel. I liked the fabric a lot better. This green is a bit plain, but it'll do.

Selvage Fairy, the cat is back outside.  You'll see.

More trees

I think I overdid it. These two overlapping trees on the far right are too close in value, and the one on the left leans too far over to the left.

And the house needs a cat.

Autumn Trees

I'm getting the hang of making these trees overlap. It's a little bit tricky.  You have to think of the tree as a big triangle (including the trunk and the ground below it) as one unit, and handle it very carefully because the edges are generally on the bias.

I started making trees overlap by making complete tree units and then chopping off what I didn't need, but now I'm getting a bit smarter -- see that green tree over on the right? It never started out as a complete tree!

I'll have the complete "House and Tree Along" after the beginning of the year. In the meantime, be thinking of what you want to do with your own private forest!

Winter Plan

My back was hurting a lot last night, so after dinner I lay on the couch and drew up this plan for the winter panel of the Four Seasons quilt.It's not perfect - the two groups of trees should be ever so slightly closer together, and I don't want the two biggest trees to be exactly the same height. I may push the house back a little, and even make it smaller, but overall I'm pretty pleased with it.  It's a start, and will give me something to think about.

Like, how am I going to make those trees overlap? Last night I wasn't so sure. This morning, I think I have it figured out.

For the birds

One of my quilting friends told me once, "You always find the BEST fabrics."

I disagreed. I don't think my fabrics are better than anybody else's. In fact, some of my most "inspired" fabric choices were from fabrics that were given to me. (The border of the quilt for DQS8; the lazy dog in The Quick Brown Fox; the spiderwebs on the W in Nine x Nine; the orange roof of the house in Magic Happens.)


I would certainly never have bought this fabric with the pink birds on the green background. I kept it because I thought it might have potential.

It did.

With a little careful trimming, it's perfect as the "ground" in my Spring panel for the Four Seasons Quilt-Along.

I know I keep harping on you to look at your fabrics to see what they can BE.  This is what I mean.


What?  Oh, you can't see the whole thing? Well, oh, of course not...

House Planning

 I've been thinking a lot about my wonky house and trees. I've decided to go with the four seasons idea, and have pulled all my fabrics. I've also been thinking about how I'd arrange them in a quilt.

First, in more traditional rows, like this.

Then I thought of the cyclical nature of the four seasons, and thought about arranging them a bit like this, with the houses in the center, surrounded by trees.  The trees in the border would blend seasons into one another, as they do in real life..

These are tiny little drawings from my sketchbook.  You may have to click each photo to enlarge.

While I hate being too "cutesy" I thought of some additional elements that would help identify the seasons in each house - a porch in summer, a mini quilt on a clothesline in the spring, a pumpkin for autumn, perhaps a Christmas wreath on the door in winter... I don't know if I'll actually include these in the finished quilt, but it's better to have too many ideas than too few.

How are your ideas coming along?