A new tree quilt

In 2009, I started a series of art quilts celebrating the changing seasons of the West Coast of Canada, each featuring a single tree.

For a few months, I’ve been thinking it’s about time to start the next art quilt in this series.  I was planning to do either a green or autumn-colored tree.  So, I’ve been on the lookout for the right fabrics – they have to have a medium scale and range of values, so they look like leaves from a distance.  At our last guild meeting, one of our members brought some fabric which she no longer wanted.  When I saw it, my first thought was ‘that fabric would be perfect for my tree quilt, except it’s blue‘.  My second thought was ‘maybe I could make a blue tree with that fabric’.  So that’s the new plan – a tree with blue leaves, a chartreuse trunk and a yellow sky.

I’ve started with the drawing for Spring Blossoms, making some changes.  So far I’ve added more foliage to the tree and some rolling hills to the background.  I’m not sure yet if there will be some smaller trees in the background.  But as I always start with the tree and add the background later, I don’t have to make those decisions yet.  At this point, I haven’t even decided on the fabrics for the background.  Everything is subject to change as I work on this piece, until I start sewing it together.  I hope you’ll follow along as I create my Blue Tree.