Tree Wall Hanging

I finished it!  

These blocks were made a while ago by my Wonky Quilt Bee friends.  I'd sent them small bits of fabric, the white and the brown for the tree trunks.  The request was applique trees.  I love how all the tress turned out.  

The quilt is sashed with Kona Teal.  It has become my new favorite color.  It makes each block stand out on it's own, and yet ties it all together.  The binding is Kona Teal, too.  Usually, I'd use some print for the binding, but I wanted the binding on this quilt to blend in with the rest of the quilt.  I contemplated using white to set the binding shashing apart from our green wall, but went with the Kona Teal.  I'm glad I did.  It makes everything flow well.  There's no hard edge and your eye is drawn to the trees, not the sashing.

The quilting is simple stippling.  White thread for the white area and teal thread for the teal area.  I stippled pretty small puzzle pieces.  For some reason, the quilting on the white went really well.  Then my machine started acting up when I switched to the teal thread, even though it was the same manufacturer.  I found a ton of suggestions on how to adjust your machine for FM quilting on this blog.  What finally worked for me was increasing the tension and making sure I went really fast.

I've set a goal of finishing projects this summer and this is the only one I've finished so far.  Admittedly, I have finished a few quilt tops and am gearing up for the backs and quilting.  I've decided, though, that summer time is not a good time for quilting.  It's too dang hot!  I quilted this during nap time one day and was sweating hard!  Thanksfully, I have plenty of quilt tops to finish!