Top Finished

After having a run-around morning, I had several hours all afternoon to work on the quilt.
I finished to branches on the right side of the tree and then had the daunting task of cutting the pattern for the "crown" or top of the tree.

I wont lie to you; it took me about 45 minutes to cut this out, and I wasn't even done then!  I still had plenty of little fiddly bits to go in and remove.  But it wasn't an unpleasant thing to do.  I was listening to NPR podcasts and just working away.  

And then, suddenly, as if by magic, I had the fabric piece cut out and the tree was finished.

Just kidding.  That took a long time, too.  

Then I ran into a problem.

Without thinking about the consequences, I fused every branch all the way down to the pattern.  I could have just fused the branch to the trunk, but I just had to see how close I was to the original drawing.  And then, when it came time to transfer the fabric to the quilt, it frayed as I was pulling it up from the backing paper.  I had to go REAL SLOW, and then I had to trim some of the frayed bits away.  Live and learn.

But all is well that ends well.  And now I just have to put a back on it and quilt it.  

I had a fuzzy intention of making a quilt every month, but now I have two quilt tops that are unfinished and I think I will readjust my goal and try to finish both by the end of this month.

My cousin Celeste asked a question in yesterday's post:

What kind of fabric are you using for the sun rays that makes it appear transparent? I love that effect.

I am using all hand-dyed fabrics by Melody Johnson, of course.  These are getting to be in short supply, so I will be making my own very soon.  But it's merely a matter of using lighter values that gives the look of transparency.