Saffrons Blog

I thought I should share one of my projects in its progression from start to finish. This Tree quilt started with a simple idea, trees in straight lines with the fairies as the leaves. It originated from a simple drawing I did a while ago.

I started with 4 fat quarters of white fabric as the center pieces appliqued with Fairy Circles fabric for the trunk and branches and a lot of assorted paper-pieced circles from the Fantastic Fairy range. Fairies love nature and so I aimed for an organic, earthy feel and the Tree Quilt evolved from there. Each fabric piece was pinned to the background fabric and hand appliqued one fat quarter at a time.



After I finished the middle panel of the three trees I thought for a while that the quilt was complete. I intended it as a smaller wall hanging, but soon I realized that I should make into a single bed size quilt. What to do? I experimented with lots of different borders and colours but didn't get anywhere.

At that stage I was calling in everyone I knew for advice. My mum even made me take the entire quilt apart at one stage. Thank goodness she did. I had realized I would need to wait for The Forest Elemental range in aquamarine and chocolate to arrive. Back in the cupboard for a few weeks.




Once the Forest Elemental fabrics had arrived I played around with what will go where until I finally decided on putting the fabrics in a strip pieced border on the sides. I just love the Elk Landscape design so I chose to use a 20cm strip of it at the top and bottom adjoined by a big strip of the Fairy Love hearts to suit a girl's bedroom. It's got a real strawberry and chocolate feel, the earthiness of the greens and browns contrasted by the sweetness of the reds and pinks. Organic yet girly.

In the end I think the aquamarine Forest Elemental fabrics worked in very well. And I was my fiercest critic for this quilt. I don't think I have ever laboured so much over a quilt!

To finish off the quilt was long arm machine quilted all over with big love hearts. Then it took me about two weeks to decide what colour to bind it with. In the end I choose the Fairy in Flowers for its light and random feel.



I always like to make a couple of cushions to go with a quilt so I made a love heart cushion, much loved by my little girl.

Then I had to wait nearly 4 weeks for the rain to stop to take some pictures to share the making of this quilt.

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