Round Robin Winter Wonderland Row 7 with Mary of Tulip Patch

A while back I was asked to participate in a Row Along quilt by Becky of Patchwork Posse. Be warned, I've never done anything like this and I don't have a lot of experience with this year's theme…winter wonderland. In Houston, the joke is there are 2 seasons :summer and January. We might get the occasional cold snap or a rainy spell here and there, but by and large it's muggy, humid, & hot as all get out.

When I first started quilting, the phrased "paper pieced" or "foundation pieced" was very scary to me…until I actually tried it. This is an easy way for someone who loves the look of precision piecing without all the fussy measuring to still achieve a crisp "perfect point" quilt. Even those who love wonkier quilts can use this method to stabilize pieces that are bias cut or oddly shaped to make a quilt top that behaves for quilting.

Here are the fabrics you will need:

• 1 2"x 18" strip of brown (tree trunk) fabric
• 8 5"x7" rectangles of background fabric
• 2 2.75"x18" strips of background fabric 
• about a fat quarter of scraps in the color green…you can piece the size you need from strings, orphans, or scraps…or just use a fat quarter of new fabric.

Click to open the Tree Quilt Block Template

First sew your 2 strips of background fabric to either side of your tree trunk fabric to make a strip set. 

 Cut your strip set down into 8 2" long sections. Set these aside for now.

Now print off 9 foundation papers. You will use 8 of these for actual foundations. The 9th one will be for creating a crude template for cutting your tree fabric…precision isn't important here…we will square it all up later!

If you have an old set of rotary blades, this is the perfect time to bring them out. I use old blades whenever I will be working with paper. I actually use one cutter just for paper, the other for fabric. I cut up my template by cutting a line 1/2" away from the boundaries of the tree top.

Now  you can lay this template out over your green fabric choice and roughly cut…I like to give myself plenty of room to work with. It's a lot easier to trim fabric than trying to unpick something that is too small…with paper piecing you use very small stitches.

Cut your eight 5"x7" rectangles of background fabric now. If you are using a solid or two-sided fabric, you can slice all 8 diagonally like the picture above. If you are using a fabric that has an ugly side & a pretty side, you will want to slice 4 rectangles from the bottom left corner to the top right corner and another 4 rectangles from the bottom right corner to the top left corner.

Now put your paper up to a light source (window or light box). You will be placing your fabric on the UNPRINTED side of the paper, so the light helps you see to the other side to align everything. Add a little glue in the tree area (or pin) and place your tree fabric on the paper. You will place the UGLY side of the tree fabric next to the back side of the paper.

Now take one of your rectangle sections and pin it to your tree section. If you are using the light you will be able to tell where the seam line should be.. overlap the background fabric at least 1/4" from the seam line. You will be pinning the background fabric pretty side to pretty side (RSF), both on the backside of your fabric. This fabric is 2 sided so it's a little hard to tell.

Now go to your sewing machine and turn over your paper. You will be stitching on the printed side. Adjust your stitch length to 1 and sew the line between A1 and A2.

Fold all the paper and fabric backward so you can see your seam line. Trim all fabric 1/4" away from the seam line & press.

Now repeat  on the other side with the line between A1 and A3.

When you're trimmed up, press everything open.

Turn to the printed side of the paper and trim on the outermost edges.

Now pull your paper off…this is where that short stitch length comes in handy!

We are just missing our trunk sections, so fetch those and return your stitch length to normal (about 2 or 2.5…whatever you like!).

Stitch the trunk RSF to the base of your treetop. Press open and…

Trees!

On this one, I used strings to create the tree top. I just used my rough template to make sure it was large enough.

On this, I used an orphan block.

You can also "make" green fabric by sewing your crumbs together. Lots of possibilities…so raid your scraps & orphan blocks . You can even use white fabric if you want that snow covered look!