Sandhill Tree Farm

Sometimes on our quilts-on-location outings, I plan the colors of the quilts with the anticipated background.  But sometimes, I just grab some quilts that haven’t been photographed lately and head out the door.  On our recent outing to the state park with the cypress trees (that post is here), I carried along a quilt with neutral colors.  

The beauty of the browns and grays colors in this landscape made me glad I had grabbed this quilt.

I love neutral color combinations, but Sandhill Tree Farm is one of a very few quilts I’ve made in that genre. 

As soon as I noticed the colors of the park office, I knew that quilt needed to pose on those rocking chairs.  The color of the building’s siding was a great background for this one.  

Walking down Squirrel Run Trail, we found more neutral colors..and a splash of blue popped in occasionally.  There’s a plan for a quilt I could love…all neutral browns and grays with a pop of blue.  

Sandhill Tree Farm posed nicely on the railing of the deck near our picnic spot, too.

This graphic quilt was oh-so-easy to make.  I used the “pine tree block” within the Tree Farm pattern I designed a few years ago.  By the way, all my patterns are now free.  If I have printed copies available, I will pop one in the mail to you if you ask for one.  Otherwise, I can send a .pdf file to you via email.  Again, free.

This pattern layers three or more fabrics, then you cut them apart following a preprinted pattern on freezer paper, shuffle the fabrics, and reassemble.  The original Tree Farm pattern is more complicated because there are other more involved blocks included, but if you just use the pine tree blocks, it’s a quickie!

I arranged the blocks on the design wall so the blocks having darker backgrounds formed a sort of border.  A quick vine for a quilting design, and this one was done!

I love how the natural light comes though the quilt on the railing.  For this quilt, I chose one of my go-to quick motifs for quilting, a meandering vine and leaves. Normally draped over a chair in our bedroom, this quilt enjoyed the outing.

Check out the publications tab at the top of the page for patterns, including this one.

Trees at Smithgall Woods

Earlier this week, we found ourselves roaming around some of the mountains in north Georgia.  We ended up having a picnic lunch beside a creek at Smithgall Woods State Park.  The parking area was bounded by these fabulous trees – some species of pine, I think – so I was glad I happened to have some quits in the car.

This tree quilt is one of several I made many years ago, adapting a pattern by Caryl Bryer Fallert.  The tree is appliquéd to a batik background fabric which still pleases me.  The quilting is minimal stippling with an invisible thread (the early part of my quilting life, remember?)  and I never gave it a name or attached a label.  I actually made a couple of these as gifts; this one is still hanging around.  I think seeing it perched on a fence under those trees is worth the years of storage.  It measures 40” square.

I had another quilt in the car; one I’ve written about before.  But it is a showy quilt and wanted to nestle in the branches of one of these trees.  So we tossed Remember Me up on a limb and snapped some photos.  Details of the story behind and construction of this quilt are in an earlier post here.

My loyal companion helping with placement and photography. Life is oh-so-wonderful with him!
We weren’t the only ones enjoying a bite of lunch in this bucolic setting.