Twisted Trees

Twisted Tree, 22" x 19"

Detail

In progress, pinned to foam core

 In my small Innovative Fiber Art group, Polly Duggan shared with us a twisted tree technique that she had learned from another quilter friend, Jackie Watkins. We used batiks for the trees because batiks have the same coloration on the back as well as the front. Starting with 1" strips of fabric, we dampened our fingers and rolled the strips into tight little "snakes" (remember making snakes from clay when you were a kid?). To assemble my tree, I first prepared a background (sky and ground) with batting and backing and quilted it. This was secured to a foamcore board so that the tree could be created onto the board. Although this seems backward, we began at the outer end of each branch and worked toward the trunk, adding and combining pieces to create the trunk down to the roots. After pinning the branches to the board, the piece was taken to the sewing machine to sew the branches. I added small twigs to indicate a bare, leafless tree. A barn and silo in the left background completed the piece.