3-D Art Quilt, Tree with Swing Small Quilt, 12 by 12 Landscape Quilt

This small 12-inch by 12-inch (30.48cm x 39.48cm) art quilt was created as an entry in a guild challenge in memory of a guild member who had passed away. A charitable donation was made to "purchase" an unseen fabric bundle from her stash and guild members were to "channel our inner Rosemary". I had participated in many quilting retreats with Rosemary, where she would gather up off-cut scraps from other participants, then spend the evening improvisationally stitching those bits together to create larger pieces of fabric. The greens and browns in my fabric bundle cried out to be made into a large old tree like the ones in her neighbourhood.

The tree canopy and grass were pieced from small bits of fabric as Rosemary taught me. To add some interest, a 3-D swing hangs from one of the branches, and 3-D mushrooms grow in the shade under the tree. All the different fabrics from my bundle were used, and I added the "sky" fabric, the wood-like tree trunk fabric and one additional green fabric to add to the grass. Once pieced, the quilt was layered with cotton quilt batting and a green and brown fabric for the backing. Fee-motion machine quilting was added to give texture and dimension to the project - zig-zags in the ground cover section to suggest grass, bark-like texture in the tree trunk and branches, clouds in the sky background, and loop-de-loops in the leaf canopy. The swing was constructed from interfacing and metallic bronze fabric, then "hung" from the tree branch by jute rope. Mushrooms were hand-stitched, gathered and attached to the piece under the tree. A double-fold binding of wood-like cotton print (matching the tree trunk) was attached to the front by machine, they carefully hand stitched to the back.

Fabric triangles in the top corners of the back, matching the backing fabric make hanging the piece easy! Just slip in a small piece of dowel, or even a bamboo skewer as shown, then hang from a single nail.

The little art quilt traveled with other "12 by 12" quilts to other quilt shows after the challenge.

Designed, pieced and quilted by Canadian fabric artist Judith Messenger in a smoke-free and pet-free studio in Toronto, Canada.

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