Season of Trees

It's the time of year when lots of people are putting up their Christmas trees, but I've also been creating some trees in my sewing room.

It started when I picked up a copy of  Miss Rosies's Farmhouse Favorites for just a dollar at a quilter's yard sale.

As I leafed through the book, this quilt caught my eye:

I knew I had finally  found just the quilt to make with a fat eighth bundle of fabrics I had at home.  

This is a fabric line called "Rose" by Jo Morton

I received this bundle for Christmas last year, and had been wondering the best way to use it.  It was kind of heavy on the lights, and less so on the darks:

so I ended up adding a few blues from my stash.  

One of the most unexpected yet fun details in this fabric line is the little message printed in the selvage edge:

I've never seen anything like it, but I loved finding it there. 

Anyhow, this post is supposed to be about trees, so back to it.  

For each tree block, you need 4 Flying Geese units, and the pattern calls for trimming them in  a specific fashion to make the trees.

To make 4 matching Flying Geese, I used the No Waste Flying Geese ruler that I blogged about here, (almost 10 years ago!)  For each set of Geese blocks, you need one square of "tree" fabric and four squares of background fabric.  This brings me to one of my absolute favorite parts of quiltmaking:  choosing which  fabrics to put together.   After I decide who will pair up with whom, I take a photo.  Then, I can cut all the same sized pieces at once, and use the photo as  a record of how to match  them back together again.

Here they are in progress:

When all was said and done, I had 6 sweet little trees ready for my quilt.

Now it's time to start building those houses!