A Home in the Forest Quilt

After a holiday break,  I got back to work on my tree quilt blocks and finished the mini quilt.  As you can see, the house stayed.

First I squared up the blocks and cut them to an equal size.  They were 3 3/4 by 4 and 3/4 high.  I arranged my layout and sewed them into rows.

When I started sewing my rows together, I had a little trouble getting my corners perfectly matched, so at that point I switched to a walking foot.

I had to get this part right and I did!

The Finished Quilt Top

I hand basted the quilt sandwich, and admired my work for a few days while I pondered.  How should I quilt it?  I was a little afraid to start. I decided to organically wavy quilt it with the walking foot and rolled it up, grasping it and moving it.  At 22 1/2 by 32 inches, it was the biggest thing I’ve machine quilted and I found it awkward and strenuous.  My shoulders hurt!  In some spots the stitches were very small due to the way I was moving it. I’m not sure if I was pulling it too much or if I wasn’t helping it to move fast enough.

wavy line quilting on cute backing fabric

It was fun to experiment with this method, and try out this look. The dense, allover quilting style I chose is more noticeable than a simple outlining of the squares and trees would have been. It’s interesting to see the way the quilting changes the appearance of the pieced top.

As I sewed, I turned the quilt around so I was alternating sewing the wavy lines from the top down and from the bottom up.  I didn’t notice my mishap until I trimmed down the batting.

Not straight!  I didn’t unpick the whole thing, but did have to pull out several lines and yank the corner back into place.

I went with the traditional method for the binding – a crosswise grain, double folded strip that I hand stitched to the back.

First project of the year done.  I really enjoyed making this mini quilt and I love its quirky uniqueness!

I have unused tree blocks and I have ideas for a pillow, but I will leave it for another time.  I feel ready to leave the forest and pursue a new path.

Resources I used and recommend:

Patchwork Tree Quilt Block Tutorial from Diary of a Quilter

Top 10 Tips for New Quilters from Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilting with your Walking Foot from the same series – fantastic photos (and quilts)

Craftsy’s free 2016 Block of the Month Class