Cover of Trees

Although, I have three other quilts in the 'works' and promised to friends and family, I did a small change of path recently when I ran across an art print on Pinterest that I just loved. The Bare Forest Print by Etsy shop, PrissDesigns - was such an inspiration and I just had to see if I could make it into a quilt.  I stayed with a very similar color palette to the original, but wanted the colors to be warmer and repeat.  I offset those colors with Kona in bone. 

I have to acknowledge my sweet little girls for being abnormally cooperative and holding it for me to photograph.  They were such good sports.  :)  (To add awesomeness to that even, they helped me baste a quilt when we got home, so big prize in their future!)

Front

Back

For the backing I picked a "natural"cotton where the threads are very prominent and gives it a very natural look.  And, for the stitching...

I flashed back to my childhood where I would always draw the grains of wood in a similar fashion on everything I did.  I just thought the intricate wood grain in matching colored thread would transfer the design to the back of the quilt in a really neat way.

This was also my first try at machine stitched binding.  Although, I do not prefer it over hand-stitched (hand-stitched is just astoundingly beautiful as the finishing touch on a quilt), I was impressed by how easy and quick it is... so definitely a wonderful alternative that I will use again and again!

And, when its all said and done, this quilt was filled with trial and error and lots of little flaws, but that's what makes it so fun.  I had never done curvy line quilting, so that was an experience.  And, I love the quilting I chose to do, but I learned a key lesson about the 1-2" inch rule for quilting... definitely makes the cleanliness alot trickier.  I also think the limbs are a little wonky (ok, ALOT... especially the very weird low green branch) and would spend alot more time getting the tree shapes just right next time around.  I free handed the fabric cuts that created the shapes and all the stitching this time around.

I would love to remake this quilt again with all my learnings and spend a bit more time getting it perfect... and sell it in my Etsy shop.  How do you think it would do?