The title for this quilt came from a camp song we sang at Girl Scout Camp many years ago. I kept humming it as I pieced the blocks for "Tall Timbers Calling". The pattern is Tree Time from Blue Nickel Studios. My version is a pretty wild thing, partly because of the improv piecing and partly because I was determined to use only fabrics from my stash. It was fun pairing them up for each block. The result is a pretty busy quilt. It's hard to get a good photo of a larger quilt, so when it was hanging in the recent Quilts by the River show, a quilting friend took this shot and shared it. I like the look of the quilt against that old brick wall.
While the quilt was in process, I took the blocks to a local sewing group and we had some fun trying to arrange them into an assembly order. It's helpful to have more sets of eyes on a layout to keep a balance of color and avoid having matching fabrics right next to each other. After arranging and rearranging tree blocks several times, we finalized a plan. Then I took a phone photo so I'd remember the stitching order. However, once I started sewing the rows, I realized the quilt would be wind up being nearly square. That's not my preferred look, so it required piecing blocks for a fourth row. I'm happy with the way it turned out.
Coincidentally, one of the group members had this cute market bag with her that day. It had the same bright and whimsical tree feel as the quilt, so I wanted to show it in this post.
5 comments:
Just loving your Arboretum;))! I love scrappy quilts and yours really came out beautifully... nice work using just your stash--that is what I've been doing with my Melange piece and also this Christmas Web I am working on now...
Hugs, Julierose
at first glanz i saw leaves of many colors! after reading, now i see that they are trees! i love it and need to know what size your leaf blocks are! i too need /want to use up the scraps i have saved, some precious, over all these years/decades....before unimaginative relatives toss them out....
And because juxtaposition is every thing in a quilt like this...heck most all pieces i make, just now i am loving pumpkin /purple pieces together mucho!
Oooo. I like your "Tall Timbers Calling." Such a lovely mash-up of scrap fabrics, yet each is defined by the branches within. How great that it was in a quilt show! I'm so glad a friend took that photo for you. But it makes me curious... do you not take pictures of your finished quilts? I agree with you about preferring a rectangle-shaped quilt. You did right to add another row. That's a cute market bag too.
Love this quilt!!! I didn't realize how large each section was until the picture on the table! Nicely done!
As you may recall from being one of my blog readers for ages……this type of ‘tree’ is one I’ve used many times….no pattern….just made it up and often used slightly different tree shapes, inserts, but never pieced into a grid which you did and I like very much. Instead I used them as appliqué motifs. So much fun seeing other applications…thank you for sharing..
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