While pondering the next steps on Scott's king-size Hawaiian quilt, I decided the nearest island needed some trees at the base of it. I found some fabric in my stash and used the back for the farthest row and the front for the nearest. They look like the trees on some of the actual islands (better than this photo), but most of them have at least a few palm trees. I do not have an embroidery machine, however my Bernina 1630 has a few simple motifs and it suddenly came to mind that one of them is a palm tree!
I did a practice run, finally remembering to put on the correct foot (#40). Otherwise the tree was lop-sided. This sample is a close close-up as the tree is less than 2" high. I'm using Invisafil so the stitches almost disappear rather than showing up as they do in this picture. I also fiddled around until finding a nice zig-zag that looks better than this photo.
Then I used a permanent marker to fill in the leaves. I'm not sure about thread painting or more painting, but right now, it looks just fine from a few feet back. Here's hoping I don't fall off this learning curve (or ruin the quilt)!
Since the last post, more of those flying geese in quarter circles are finished (but lots of them are not!) Here is what is done so far. They are just pinned on the design wall -- and will have a border between them and the star border. The main fabric is not as yellow as it looks here.
Also progress on Scott's king size. He wanted Hawaii, but I'm taking liberties for both the design and the colors. That aqua blue along with dark green foliage looks too much like a painting on velvet -- as in 'garish' -- even though it looks terrific on Maui. Anyway, these are the background 'islands' with aerial perspective. The white strip will be much narrower, just a contrasting highlight on the water way back there. I've pinned this to the full size pattern that is pinned to a big quilt hanging on my hallway wall. Even this bit was a bit unwieldy, but with practice, it should get easier to manipulate the pieces?
The photo is a bit dark, but you get the idea. Next is the water and sand, then the sky, then the foliage...
