Free Motion Mavericks - Week 67 - I Had A Little Nut Tree

My favourite nursery rhyme, turned into a 12 x 12 inch free motion quilted wall hanging:-

I had a little nut tree, nothing would it bear...

... but a silver nutmeg...

  

... and a golden pear... 

There wasn't enough room for the King of Spain's daughter.

My original idea was to make it look like a book illustration, but while I was treadling away, stitching the leaves and stems for the flowers at the foot of the tree, I realised that the shade of green looked vaguely familiar. 

In fact, it is staring me in the face every time I glance at the crockery on the dresser in the kitchen. Add to that the fact that to get the circle for the design I had drawn round an 11 inch dinner plate, the whole project turned into a picture of a plate.

Logic dictated that the background should be a table cloth, easily done by cross-hatching in variegated thread.

 Doing the leaves was great fun, especially using thread with an occasional flash of pink.

The hand stitched pink flowers were the final touch.  They seemed to take hours.  The variegated thread gave an element of surprise, which relieved the tedium.

This the second quilt that I have made for the forthcoming show of 12 x 12 quilts at Midsomer Quilting.  Now I shall have to wait until December to see what everyone else has made.  

Here goes for week 67...

The project in Week 66 that really caught my eye was Heulwen's cushions for her nephews and niece, with a different design for each child, and free motion quilting to suit each design. The children will love them! If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more photos.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France and Macau have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up to Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.