Slow Stitching - tree #4

This is my fourth tree square for my Slow Stitching project.  This one features a tree made of two halves.  I took the time to add fusible webbing to the back of all the trees I had left that were halves.  It was a bit tricky to get the two halves close enough to not have a gap and then to get them not to move when I applied the webbing.  They worked out quite well.  It sure is easier to do the stitching when they are whole trees!!  For this one, I made horizontal stitches in orange and then vertical stitches in between in yellow.  I added a yellow star using 6 short stitches which works a bit better.  I added some purple "ornaments" using satin stitch which I had never done before.  I like the way they turned out!!!!        Therese

Another flannel quilt featuring blues and reds with a plaid backing

I finished another little quilt today.  It measures 39" x 51 1/2" and features a variety of flannel rectangles which were precut when I acquired them to about 4" x 5.5".  I had quite a few plaid ones so I laid them out first and filled in with the animals ones.  I did have to cut a few extra and then stitch together scraps to make up the last few I needed.  I had to do some swapping as well to ensure that none of the same fabric touched each other or were too close in the same line.  As I was stitching the top together I noticed that there are a few places where I missed ones that were touching or in the same line but that is the way it goes.  I offset the lines which met that if the rectangles were not exactly the same size it would not be glaringly obvious.  It did mean that I had to add some scraps to every second row to ensure they would be long enough to square off.  Once I had the top assembled I washed it as it seemed to me that some had not been washed and I preferred to deal with the shrinkage before it was quilted.  I only shrank 1/2" on width and 1" on the length.  Not too bad.  When I squared it for finishing I had one row that was too short but fortunately one of the scraps which I had cut off was just big enough to fill in the space so I undid a bit of the two seams, stitched on the scrap and redid the two seams.  Perfect!  I had to trim off less than 1/8"!!  I used piece of cotton as the batting and added a plaid backing.  Once I had very thoroughly pinned my sandwich, I stitched in the ditch on all the seams between the columns.  I used the backing to bind the quilt by trimming it about 1.5" larger than the front and folding it over twice and stitching it to the front.  I pressed everything and pinned it very carefully as well.  I stitched all the way around and into the corners as well to ensure they stayed nice and neat.       Worked out really well!!    

Therese