Assembling a small forest...

Yesterday and Monday's Week Of Miniatures project. Finished quilt is 11-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches and is suitable for Miniature Quilt categories in competitions... Quilted in very fine matchstick lines with an Aurifil variegated 60 weight thread...

Detail of the quilting.

This little tree piece is all made from an old pack of Oakshott Fabrics Autumn (the original 21 colours, but the new selection is pretty nice too) and I started with a pack of 5-inch charm squares which have been lurking for a while

I cut the pieces like this, used the biggest piece as the background for each tree and the strips for the branches, the wider strip as the trunk. Tutorial HERE but I do NOT recommend you start this small...

 

 

 I arranged the trees on my little design board, then took a photo in black-and-white to assess the shading. Note the second tree from the left in the second row up - it's much lighter than the others, so I moved it up.  Your phone camera will do this for you, it's really useful

Trimming each pair to make straight edges, I sewed them together...

I arranged the pieces into slightly random blocks, as this makes for a better result...

 Only trim when you are ready to sew together. Two straight lines sewn together will always lie flat, of course. Press every time!

And sew on...All assembled. Quilt before trimming...

 

Have Dones, rather than To Dos

Much more encouraging, and we have emailed each other with short or long lists each day - yesterday's could have been summed up as Postcards, on both sides
My Have Done for today

Next in my Full Moon series - this is just the background, needs trees. Can you see the moonlight through the forest?

Triumphant Return

Well we have returned from the Festival of Quilts; in triumph in the case of HH, with her second "Judge's Choice" award in two years with this exquisite silk tree miniature called "Another Fair Copse". I watched Helen construct and quilt this piece while I was teaching a class on foundation paper piecing at her workshop and, apart from the breeze moving the tiny silk strips about at inopportune moments, it was all made in an amazingly short period of time.

As you can see the award is almost as big as the quilt!

My miniature had the distinction of being smaller than just one of the blocks on the "Ebb Tide" quilt that I had entered into the Modern category. It finished at under 8 inches square and includes 81 individual blocks! But then I am known for being a bit o.t.t. about miniatures.

I made this design  originally as a 3 foot square wall hanging (much bigger blocks) for Michael Oakshott to show off his new range Longshott cottons. Click on the photo below to go to the Oakshot Fabrics website