"Pinspired" from Painting to Quilt

Rett's paintings are really amazingly beautiful.

This one is titled Small Neat Worlds II.  I secretly think Rett, in her heart of hearts, is also a quilter.  She just doesn't use fabric.

Either way, I fell in love with A Tree Grows when I found it on Pinterest and repinned it onto my "Amazing Quilts" board knowing someday I wanted to recreate this magical design.

I have been obsessed this week.

Monday I pondered, picked, cut and rejected 3" square pieces of fabric for the sky, grass and tree.

Found a lay out for the sky and grass I liked.

I used  muslin to fill in where the tree would be appliqued.

Tuesday, things are just pinned in place on a makeshift design wall.

Okay.  It's cool.  I like where it's going.

Wednesday I traced my tree trunk and branches onto a paper template for the circle using a grid process to determine placement of the branches.  I then cut out the pattern and used Heat'n Bond from Joann's to fuse the dark brown batik fabric chosen for the tree and ironed it onto the circle.



Let me tell you, cutting the branches out before and after the Heat'n Bond was what I imagine wrestling an octopus might be like.  lol

Our oldest and nextest went hiking in the afternoon and youngest was at his school so that left the me time to cut out the small "lights", place them where I wanted them and iron them down.

This time, the smaller compass did work for the small circles of yellow Kona.

So, here I am.
Thursday, I added a few more medium and small circles out more into the sky.

Finished for now.

Taking some time off to think about where I want to take this next.  I know it will be another wall hanging for our home, but I don't know:

if I want to take this further in design.

do I add sashing?

complimentary quilt blocks?
extend it down vertically with sashing and ??????

leave it alone?

quilt the trunk and branches with white, or gray thread?

I think I'll meander a bit around the sky and treetop for quilting and then hand quilt around the lights.  French knots will be the tiny lights too small to cut and fuse to the piece.

I'm very pleased with this so far, and suggestions are always welcome!

Another "finish" I'm happy to report is Lady's new collar.  Another tutorial on Pinterest helped me use Moda's Birdie fabric to craft a replacement for the ratty old one she was wearing.

Saved me about $7-10 dollars!

You gotta love Pinterest!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and with Megan for Sew Modern Monday.