Beech Canopy Quilt

I have a finished quilt to share today, one that I started about a year ago. This is Beech Canopy and it was inspired by looking up at the tops of my favourite beech trees from below in the spring. I love that fresh green colour and the way the sun sparkles through them.

I had this idea just as the Festival of Quilts announced their new Sustainable Quilts competition category. Regular readers will know that I like to champion sustainable crafting so I felt duty bound to create an entry.

To tell you the truth I was a bit worried that they would have a poor showing in this first year and might abandon the idea. I didn’t need to worry, they had a massive amount of entries and it was one of the largest categories at the show last year.

As you can tell I didn’t get this finished in time for last year’s FOQ but it’s certainly going this year.

The idea for this quilt was to create an improv background using all old pre-loved textiles (clothes, bedding, homewares etc.) and then use craft fabric scraps for the leaves. Luckily I use a lot of green fabric and I had already started saving pieces with this in mind.

At around this time I was starting to work on the videos for my next online class for The Thread House Academy, Organic Improv Applique. This was part of the colour theme workshop and my original samples were the Vetch Cushions (above) which feature an improv background with contrast applique ‘vetch’ leaves.  I decided to use the Beech Canopy quilt to show how you can scale up this idea to quilt size.

So if you fancy making your own version of this quilt (or the cushions) why not check out the online on-demand class which is still available to buy and with lifetime access here.

I began making mini blocks based on a few improv exercises, such as wonky log cabin, curves, triangles and what I like to call ‘doors’. I then arranged these in rows until I was happy with the composition.

As this was meant to look like the sky I used mainly blues and creams but it was a little too low contrast so I added in those pops of orange. These were from two separate linen garments I’d worn over the years (obviously a favourite colour of mine!).

I decided to quilt before adding the applique leaves which was a bit of an experiment.

To keep with the sustainable theme I used a recycled wadding by Vlieseline number R 80. This is made of 100% recycled polyester fibres with ‘a high migration resistance’.

It was much more bulky than the 80/20 I’m used to and so I gave it quite a heavy ‘random plaid’ straight line quilting. This was achieved with ease on my Handi Quilter Moxie (the original version not the XL as it was last summer) using Aurifil 40/3 thread in off-white.

I roughly trimmed the edge and then began to arrange the leaves and pin them in place before stitching using Aurifil 80wt thread. As they were coming in from the edges of the quilt it was manageable for handling.

I think trying to applique these by hand in the centre of the quilt would have been much harder, but still possible as it is not a huge quilt (about 50″ square).

This bit did take quite a while! After adding this first layer I realised I would need quite a few more to achieve the effect I wanted so at this point I put the quilt away and forgot about it!

A few weeks back, with the next FOQ competition deadline looming I got it out a again and added another layer of leaves.

When finished the applique I thought they needed something more so added a hand quilted centre vein to each leaf using a mixture of Aurifil 12wt wool and their new 8wt cotton.

After adding a faced binding it was finished!

My son and his partner were visiting last week from their home in Sweden and so I took advantage of an extra pair of hand and got him to be my quilt holder for some nice floating images. It was quite uncomfortable for him to crouch in this awkward position behind the quilt as you can see above!

I have a bumper crop of quilts to enter to FOQ this year, and am trying to decide whether to send 4 or even 5! This one is a definite so do look out for it if you are coming to the show. If you haven’t got a ticket yet then you can use my discount code to get £2 off! Just click here and enter code WT24.

My classes are almost booked up but I have a few places left on Dream Birds, Dandelion Clock Block and Keepsake Fabric Book. Or why not join me for the Simple Modern Quilting Live lecture and watch me quilting on my Moxie Long Arm LIVE on stage!