Free Motion Mavericks - Week 265 - A Gnarled Oak

This is phase one of my next project, choose a tree.  This photo shows an oak tree which is only three minutes' walk from our house, and is going to be the first of my stitched trees.  

It has already figured on a previous picture as a background detail.  This time I shall have to see if I can convey its age, with the dead bough standing out against the rest of the branches with their sprouting leaves.  There is a hole in the trunk, partly covered by ivy, which I watched during many sunsets last autumn, listening to the owls inside hissing and waiting for them to emerge.  This next picture is going to be a labour of love.

Here goes for week 265:-

Many thanks to Caryl, for linking up last time with her reminder to have fun with free motion quilting, and to be creative every day.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

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.

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 five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

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