Pine + Bow Quilt Along Post #1: Meet Pine + Fabric Pull

Pine + Bow Quilt Along Post #1: Meet Pine + Fabric Pull

Let’s look at Pine!

I’m thrilled to kick off this Quilt Along with this first post about Pine. Since we’re featuring two patterns (Pine and Bow), I’ll be alternating the featured pattern each week. No matter which one you’re doing, I hope that each week the thoughts, images and other things can bring its own bit of inspiration to whatever you are working on.

I LOVE a tree pattern (see Grove and Olive to name a few), and Pine is my smallest tree pattern. It features two block sizes to choose from–tiny (blue bordered version, left) and less tiny (yellow-y version, right). It debuted with my Friedlander collection a few years back and is a tribute to the mini spirited Pine trees that I’ve been planting at my house.

The Design

Over the years I’ve admired the way Pine trees grow and how each new bloom of needles and branches begins with such exuberance. The sweet, upward bursting bits is what I wanted to capture most in the block.

Picking Fabric

Scrappy is a great way to go with this project. The little pieces means little bits of stuff you have lying around can be worked in pretty easily. Both projects featured on the cover are made from my Friedlander fabric collection, but I sprinkled the colors and prints around in a way that feels quite scrappy to me. I like how this gives a sense of depth to the project.

In both versions I explored mixing my lights and darks between the background and the motif. I also treated the borders differently in each. The lighter version has a softer frame by having a border that blends with many of the blocks.

The blue border on this one acts more as a frame since it’s more different than the backgrounds I choose.

In anticipation of this Quilt Along I sewed up a few blocks to get a feel for things. I pulled from my scrap pile and worked with the smallest block option. The mix of prints, solids, and checks gives me a lot to look at and to think about.

My Quilt Along project inspiration

It’s hard not to go in a scrappy direction with this project–it’s just too enticing and what I was initially thinking I’d do. But recently I realized that it might be fun to stick to a palette, especially since I’d gathered one from some recent adventures that I am liking so much.

Here’s a collaged look at my trip to Sarasota and the Ringling Museum a few weeks ago. The warm pinks and peaches plus the hints of black, red and blue–I love it. (Bottom left: Art credit is Wilson Bowers as part of the Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art exhibit.)

Based on that, here’s what I pulled.

Pinks and peaches first, and I also have some black, blue, and deep green as possible accents.

It’s certainly enough to get me started. As I make blocks, I can see what’s really working for me.

Post #1 Video

Each week I’ll be sharing a video as we move along. This week I talk about Pine, share my fabric pull and answer three crowd-sourced questions. If you’d like to submit a question for me to answer in future weeks, you can submit it here.

There we have it! Let me know what you think and how your project is going. Tag your project on instagram with #pinebowQAL so I can see it.

To catch up on all of the Pine + Bow Quilt Along posts, head over here.