Stash Bee Tree!

In February I joined the Stash Bee, hosted by Sunni from Love Affair with my Brother ~ my first quilting bee ever!  Our bee leader this month has requested tree blocks.  I racked my brain for several days trying to think of something different and thought I had a brilliant idea.  I had visions of circle leaves with the centers cut out.  So, I cut out lots of little circles and then cut out the centers.  Originally, I wanted to interlock the circles but that did not work.  I was just not happy with the tree.       

Tree number 1

I’m really not sure what I was thinking with this design.  Some ideas are better off left in my head.  How in the world did I plan on stitching around that layered mess of circles? 

Am I the only one that always ends up with a sticky mess when I appliqué?  I had steam a seam stuck to everything: my iron, the ironing board cover, the fabric.  I’m sure you get the picture.  I actually had to stop so I could clean my iron and wash the ironing board cover.  And yes, I was using an appliqué pressing sheet.  I had sticky stuff all over it too!  I think I’m just impaired when it comes to appliqué.  

I cleaned up my mess and went back to the drawing board.  I did a little surfing for some inspiration and I’m pretty happy with tree number 2.

I made a swirly trunk out of Moda Bella Solids ~ Steel and used up some pink and orange scraps for the leaves.  I didn’t cut perfect circles.  I wanted them to be free form circles.  I top stitched the pink leaves with orange thread and the orange leaves with pink thread.

Here’s a closer look…

I’m pretty happy with the final product!  Now all I have to do is stick it in the mail.
If you’ve never been in a quilting bee you should check out Stash Bee!  It’s loads of fun and a good way to build your sewing and quilting skills.
Vicki

13 thoughts on “Stash Bee Tree!”

  1. aww, they are both cute, the circles with holes, could you just do a straight stitch down the middle on the circle or rather around in the circle on each one, don’t know how much that would tak

  2. I like both of them! How about just doing a straight line quilting on the first one….tight lines to hold it. Since the circles are on the bias they won’t fray much. I did that on a mug rug.

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