In my last post, I showed my progress on my 2 entries to the next Fibre Art Network (FAN) exhibit, ‘Botanical Reflections’.
I have completed the first one, ‘Ginkgo Reflections’. It includes several of my favorite design elements – circle shapes, leaves and bright colors. In nature, Ginkgo leaves are a beautiful lime-green, turning golden-yellow in the fall. I opted to make mine in bright, fanciful colors.
Here’s some information about how I made it. I made freezer paper templates for the quarter-circles and background. I pressed the seam allowance of each quarter-circle over the edge of the template, then machine appliqued them to the background pieces. I quilted the background before adding the leaves. I didn’t quilt the bottom section where the reflections are fused until after I attached the leaves.
To give the leaves some dimension, I fused them to felt, then free-motion stitched the leaf veins. I cut each leaf with a narrow border of felt.
The branch is made from a piece of purple bias tape. As you can see, I changed my mind several times about the placement of the individual leaves. After I finalized the position of the leaves, I attached them by quilting the narrow felt border of each leaf. Then I cut small pieces of fused fabrics for reflections. After fusing them in place, I finished quilting the bottom section.
Here’s a photo that shows the quilting really well.
Now I’m working on my second entry – ‘Maple Reflections’. For this one, I decided to quilt circular lines on the top half. You can see that I cut the batting from each corner, to reduce bulk, as explained in my tutorial about facing quilts.
I’m just starting to select fabrics for the Maple leaves, but they will also be bright. I’ll use the same techniques as described above. Check back in a day or two to see my progress on this one.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
another lovely creation!
Oh Terry what a wonderful tutorial, so much to learn here and what a stunning wall art quilt. I have seen Ginkgo trees in every stage in the streets of japan so its lovely to see your own joy of them. Looking forward to seeing the maple leaf now. great tip on cutting away the wadding in the corners thanks for that one Cheers Glenda
These are both fabulous Terry!
Genius idea to use felt to give more dimension. You inspire me to try an art quilt.
And it’s much easier to do the free-motion stitching on a small piece of felt, rather than on the whole quilt!
I really love the colorful Ginkgo leaves you used.
Ginkgo trees have a special place in my heart. I live in Middle Tennessee, USA. My father, who died in 1973, planted the first Gingko tree on the Campus of a University in the city I grew up in. Recently as I passed by the city on my travels, I visited the graves of my parents. It was very windy. As I bent to placed Christmas flowers, bright yellow Ginkgo leaves were swirling around the edges of the memorial plack. When I stood up I did not see the actual tree anywhere close. Or on the actual property. The University is at least 2 miles away from the cemetery.