A different way to applique, four season tree quilts
My sister wanted four 17" tree quilts, one for each season.
I made 19 inch sky pieces and quilted them with backing, and batting, sky only. When the sky was finished, I fused on the tree trunks and any leaves that would be behind the trunk or branches.
Then I added the other leaf fabrics and quilted all the leaf fabrics down. The Spring quilt has the buds coming out and those are done by doing scribble quilting.
It was so much easier quilting the sky first without the trees fused on than trying to go around the branches with the background quilting. When it was totally quilted, I then cut it down to 17"