Trees of the Four Seasons Tutorial

This quilt was inspired by an 1800’s one, I’ve had it pinned into my scrap book since the early 2000, it has now sort of morphed into something else and the only thing now that is similar to the antique one is that the pots are in the same position. It took me a while to realize that the best way to design it is to do it in quarters, this way, the leaves can merge into each other.

If you read through the instruction sheets in the pattern pack, it is important to transfer the position of the trunk to both sides of the background fabric, you may need to use a lamp under the glass coffee table.

Unlike the other quilts I have done, the midline guides here are only used for transferring the design on to the background, they will not be used for measuring the final size of the block. You will be using the line of the trunks of the trees to measure the final block size. As you’ll be marking the final block size on the back of the background fabric, you really need to make sure that this trunk line is at the same position at the front as well as at the wrong side of background fabric.

You also need to mark the squares carefully, as there are 2 blocks which must be transferred in reverse. If one looks at the bottom left quarter, the right bottom one is the reverse. Going up, the top right quarter is the right side and the top left is the reverse. You’ll also be needing 2 sets of leaves templates, one reversed and one set as is.

Now, to the fun part, choosing the fabrics. I’ve elected to do it in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter colours. This has given the appearance of half the quilt being diagonally light and dark which had my husband rattled a bit! There was a suggestion by someone in a previous post that she might like to do hers with darker colours down below and going lighter towards the top, this sounds good too and might be easier to control.

I have a lot of lighter colour prints which I don’t use very often, so this quilt was a good opportunity to use it. Colour wise, this quilt is a great one for you to use you stash, I don’t think you’ll have any problems with it. The best way is to lay out the numbered background fabric on a big table or the floor and place the pieces of fabrics with the ironed on freezer paper templates at the right positions and build from there. Leave a decent area around the ironed on templates so can see what fabrics you have used. Please refer to the previous applique tutorials, these were done for the Pandemonium Quilt but the method is the same.

If you are going to the quilt with the four colours, it might be a good idea to do the cutting of the fabrics for each square in sequence and also write at the edge of the square which quarter you are doing. I did get myself into a knot! But this doesn’t mean that you will though.

This tutorial was originally posted on the Glorious Applique Blogspot in 2013.