WIP Quilting That's "Pinspirational"

A Shoebox of Photographs is the blog of an amazing Australian artist named Rett.

I recently came across one of her tutorials on Pinterest for an amazing painting.

(A Tree Grows)

Isn't this incredible!  At first I thought it was a quilt and then I went to her blog and saw it's a painting.

I love the colors, the play of light and dark, the swirls in the tree and the lights and circles dancing through the night sky.

I'm taking March to Spring Clean and Spruce at our house and have put away all my "large" projects.  I've committed to working on smaller projects I've pinned on my boards for sewing and improvements around home.  When I saw how Rett's painting is "constructed" I knew I wanted to make a quilt inspired by her work.

You should really browse her blog...she has some incredible things she's created there.

Out came all the scraps (once again) and I cut 3" squares of greens, blues, reds, pinks, purples, yellows and shades in between.  I started placing them on a makeshift "design wall" in the dining room and played with where I thought the colors should go.  The placement is not true to the painting's, but this is an inspired piece where I let my preferences and medium play to my tastes.

So here is the first layer.

There are eight rows of eight squares.  The white is muslin left blank for the next layer.

Which is also finished and has been cut out to applique onto the first layer.

The dark brown batik is the fabric I've chosed for the tree trunk and branches.  I'm mulling over the best way to draw, cut and applique these on.  Then I'll move on to thinking about adding the lights and circles and quilting those swirling patterns into the tree trunk.

They say "Necessity is the mother of invention" and I needed a large circular object to serve as template for my tree top.  Um....we have itty bitty, little compasses (compi? lol) for school but nothing this large.

Ding!

I have a Tupperware cupcake dish that's round and pretty big.

Ratz!

Not big enough.  Okay.  We have butcher paper out on the sunroom we use for projects.  I traced the outline of the dish and added 2" and cut that out.

Voila!

I have my template.

(KT has since shared the string on a pin method...Doh!  Sometimes I overthink!)

I started on this Monday and as of last night decided to wait until today to start sketching the trunk and branches onto my template (which I will make a copy of to do this again if I want to) to cut out and then use to cut out the fabric pieces.

This has been a thinker for me.  Trying to take an inspired vision and turn it into practical application.  It's made me think, rethink and think again on a lot of different things.  But, it's been simple enough to get together pretty quick.  I like that!

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday.  You should look at her HST she's entering in the Modern Mini Challenge.  Gorgeous I tell you!  Gorgeous!

Hope to see your WIP there too.