Oh my goodness, I never expected so many people to remark, and so generously, to the Oak Tree Memory quilt! Thank you all sooooo much! I've had a few questions asked, so I'll try to answer them all. I made the entire thing myself, including making the pattern. Basically, I drew a tree on a 8 /12 x 11 piece of paper, scanned it and went online to a site that blew it up for me so I could print it out on regular paper and tape the pages together. (I don't know if I'm allowed to say the name of the site.) to 6ft. x 5 ft. All of the tree, leaves, acorns etc. are done with trapunto under all the applique pieces to make them more 3-dimensional. I machine stitched all the tree, trunk and branches and cardinal with turned under edges by machine using monofiliment thread on my domestic machine. I left the edges raw on all the flannel leaves, acorns and ivy to allow them to get "fuzzier" each time the quilt is washed for a more natural or organic appearance. I used just small pieces of fusible under all the branches and leaves just to keep them in the right place while I was machine appliqueing. I didn't want to use much fusible since my client, Kim, wanted the quilt to be as soft as possible. Once the applique was done, I loaded it on my Gammill and did all the detail quiliting on the leaves, tree trunk, bird, sky water and grass. The best part of making this quilt was Kim's reaction which was amazing. She was speechless, teary eyed, and hugged me for a very long time. We both cried a bit because I told her that I spent the time making it thinking about my own father, who passed in 2005, so it was truly a labor of love for me. (My quilt studio is my father's former workshop which he and I spent many hours in together refinishing antiques.) Finally, I learned a LOT about working with machine applique, working with flannel (which is more of a challenge than I had thought it would be), and allowing myself to just do whatever felt right.
Thank you all for your very kind words, I am very humbled and grateful to you all!
Laura in Belvidere, IL