Finished -- Tropical Palm Tree

This is "Tropical Palm Tree" by Southwind Designs.

It is a small wall hanging measuring 19" x 28".

This quilt has NO curved piecing and NO cut triangles. Magic!!

Piecing a quilt together is something that I REALLY enjoy and I'm pretty good at it.

Machine quilting is not easy for me. This quilt took me out of my comfort zone. It might look ok from a distance but the quilting is far from accurate. (I just hope it doesn't annoy me to look at it.)

I love this wavy stitch! It's my very favorite and very forgiving.

My straight lines are not spaced evenly but ---close enough to be ok.

My grid is uneven. See the smaller squares near the leaves and larger ones down below?

How does that happen when I draw a perfect grid? 

I just winged this squared spiral.

Outlining the leaves makes them pop!

Wavy lines up and down the tree trunk keep it anchored.

I have done HUNDREDS of bindings and consider myself somewhat of an expert but every now and then I goof up like this. Somehow I have one extra twist in the binding when joining the last seam.

Seam ripper to the rescue. Tada! 

This is how it was supposed to look the first time.

My Tropical Palm Tree is finished!

I've ordered more patterns from Southwind Designs since I like this easy method of no curved piecing. So stay tuned for more curvy fun stuff.

Linking to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Tropical Palm Tree

Last month when I was visiting my mom we stopped at a really nice quilt shop in NC where I found some unexpected treasures. This pattern, Tropical Palm Tree by Southwind Designs, is one of those treasures. There is no curved piecing in this quilt! Can you believe it? You only cut squares and rectangles---no triangles! Love!! So I just had to give it a try.

Tropical Palm Tree by Southwind Designs.

(Check out their website for many more patterns.)

These patterns have folded squares that end up doing special things.

I liked the green print at the top of the tree when I looked at it close up.

But from a distance it was WAY too light. So I used my seam ripper and took it out.

This gecko now sits atop the tree.

After piecing the top as directed the bias edge of the folded square is folded back on itself and top stitched. (This could be hand stitched but I like my machine better than appliqué needles.)

I just love this tree trunk! How innovative!

The left is sewn down and the right is just ironed and ready to be sewn.

Remember no curved piecing! :)

This quilt top is 19" x 28".

My Springtime Christmas Tree

My latest project is from the cover of Simply Moderne magazine Issue #3. The quilt is "Oh Christmas Tree," designed by Wendy Williams.

I love the bright springtime feel to this quilt.

It could be just a flowering tree with happy birds.

This is what the reindeer do in the off season. :)

If you know ME then you know I don't like triangles.

So I've changed the border to squares! Yay for squares!

Fun fabrics will make this quilt shine.

I couldn't find the background fabric (Moda Sweetwater Road 15 Vanilla Main Street) that was used in Wendy's quilt so I'm substituting a sweet print (Downton Abbey  Pattern 7331 by Andover Fabrics) and by making the lines go horizontally it made orienting the branches of the tree a breeze!

The outer stars are all from the Kaffe Fasset line of fabrics.

My flowers are not wool. I chose fun fabrics and fussy cut the centers.

My design wall in progress... All appliqué is just pinned on to get a balance of color and spacing.

I just love this "Black-winged Redbird"! 

(In Maryland we have a bunch of Red-winged Blackbirds.)

The flower below the red bird is from a Vera Bradley fabric.

All the birds went on first.

These flowers and birds are all sewn.

Then the leaves are sewn.

When making the reindeer eyes.....I cut up some gecko fabric....

The reindeer antlers are the only hand stitching on the entire quilt!!

Sasha was inspecting the lower border as I was pinning the top row of stars on.

This is the only Christmas fabric in the quilt. 

And I think it's funny that the star points are a Kaffe fabric called Jupiter! 

Maybe Santa was taking a vacation on Jupiter in the off-season.

This is the gecko fabric that I borrowed eyes from for the reindeer.

What a HAPPY bluebird!

Quilt top is done!

Finally time to quilt!

To keep the vertical quilting lines "straight" I ironed a strip of freezer paper on the top and quilted a wavy line along each side.

Finished!

The back is a pretty English fabric with a Christmas ornament print called "Cool Yule Baubles" by The Henley Studio, Makower UK that I got on ebay.co.uk!

Linking to Finish it Friday (I did finish this on Friday!) at Crazy Mom Quilts.