A new month: a new finish

 I AM SO EXCITED!  I have an almost finished  project that I have been working on for many years. It has had several spurts and lots of sputters. 

I have this pattern from a very old book from Primitive Gatherings when it was at different location.  They had 3 seasonal books Christmas, Spring and my favorite fall.   I have actually made at least 3 different patterns from this book and some of them multiples of the same project.  Copyright 2009.

 I love fall: the colors, the leaves, and the feel of the golden sun.  Oh, caramel apples and apple cider are awesome, too. 

The first hurdle was piecing these tiny half square triangles. I made a variety of fall colors. I don't even know what technique I used. Remember this is long before triangle paper. 

The next step was to assemble the trees.   Another delay. Long break of time when I couldn't even find the book and got a copy of the pattern from the store at its previous location. And then I needed to assemble the setting triangles,  with the border of more half square triangles.  Again not an easy task.  

And as I was looking through my stash of book, lo and behold the book was found. The difference is not having a flat spine, Then I added the setting triangles and borders on a retreat and I was so happy. 

Little trees October 2022

I started quilting in the ditch which was easy with invisible thread.  And I decided to free motion feather the outer border.  I  ran out of thread.   Ughhh.  Alas, a different day, another stab at the feathers.  If you are willing to attempt them, there are several videos on YouTube. Free motion feathers 4 ways ,  Angela Walters instruction: More free motion feathers with suggestions I watched them over and over. And I also drew them on paper page after page to get the muscle memory and that helped tremendously. 

So I asked for advice on what to do in the the setting triangles and squares.  It was suggested to do the feathers in the round/ circle. I spent lots of time researching and practicing. Here is a site I really felt helped a lot: Feathers in a wreath

And yesterday,  I spent all of this afternoon getting it accomplished.  Several frogged attempts and remarking.  But DONE! 

Then I trimmed the outer edges and attached the binding and rod pocket.  Now for the final hand stitching.

I can't tell you how this has sat beside me for months, waiting to be finished. It is such a joy to have the hard work out of the way. 

I really don't know how many years this has been hanging around, and luckily I did keep the pieces and the main fabrics together.