Twisted Trees Class

We had a good time making Twisted Tree art quilts at the MQA Gathering last weekend in Jackson. We started with a background pinned to a piece of foam core or cardboard, then made the precut strips into little twists.

Peggy Wehr and Martha

Once I was certain they all knew how to hand-twist the strips, I showed them how to speed up the process with an electric drill. 
After getting enough strips twisted, we began to create the trees by pinning the twists in place over the background. Once the twists were arranged in a pleasing manner, the pins had to be released from the board and turned flat to get the work under the sewing machine head.

Theresa Wege

Amy Schwalm

Cindy Allgood and Presley

Rebecca Dobbins

Rose Naquinn

Dianne Smith

Christy Calhoun

Myra Cook

I'm sorry I didn't get good pictures of Connie Moore, Nancy Newman, Diane Rayburn, and Roberta Slowey. Most quilters got their tree created and began sewing it down. This part is challenging to avoid hitting pins or injuring fingers, and twists can be adjusted and rearranged during this process if necessary.

Cindy stitching her tree

We discussed the background quilting and finishing and I shared my favorite edge treatment--facing--rather than binding. I promised to send Kathy Loomis' excellent facing tutorial she posted on her blog March 18, 2011.