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
Stitch It Again 
Very pretty. Great job!
Thank you! It’s a pattern I could have fun with and didn’t require more technical skill than I could handle.
Gorgeous 🙂 Well done- that seems like a rather large project!
Thank you! I’m trying to work my way up to a bed sized quilt. It would be hard to machine quilt a large size, and hand quilting would take awhile, but I’m trying to challenge myself.
This is absolutely charming! And I’m glad the little house stayed–I like the idea of people in the forest!
The house won out! It was fun to experiment with different ideas, and when I thought of it as a home it provided a story for the quilt.
Lovely! Your quilt is something I would want to take a nap with — it has that “much loved” look. I learned that term from a quilt shop owner. Good job, Lisa!
Thank you! I think making it was the best part, but I like the finished product too. I’m proud my squares match up, although I did have to redo some rows when they were off a tiny bit even though I had pinned them so carefully. Not my fault – I blame the feed dogs!