Christmas Tree Bargello Wallhanging

So it's been a while again since I posted anything here. I figure it's my blog, so that's ok with me. It's been a rough spring, but things seems to be looking up now. AND it's finally warm outside so, woohoo!

One thing I'm working on in 2013 is finishing up some of the flimsies that are sitting around in my closet. Some of these projects are years old, just waiting for quilting. Some of them are for babies that aren't quite so baby anymore. And some just bring up lots of feelings and emotions so it's hard to get any traction on them.

First up for the year is the Christmas Tree Bargello. I'd actually posted about this this back in the fall of 2012 as a link up to Leah Day's Sunday UFO day. I was super excited when she chose my UFO to respond to on her follow up day, and also that several very nice quilters came and commented on my own blog post!

I actually finished this wallhanging in February of this year, and even managed to take pictures but with everything going on in my life just haven't been able to post them until now.

Tada!

In the end, I decided to STOP worrying so much about choosing a perfect quilting pattern. Since I'm still very much learning how to be comfortable with free motion quilting, I knew that the quilting itself wouldn't be perfect (I mean, really, will it ever be? no). so I should just make the commitment to getting it done and ready for next winter!

In the borders I used Leah Day's icicle lights, but just did it going one direction instead of two.  I liked how they invoked the feeling of twinkly christmas lights, and I think the gold Isacord thread is sparkly and festive. 

In the sky background I went with just a simple swirl. There are couple of places where I tried to add a five pointed star, but wasn't really feeling it was working so I didn't too too many.

On the tree itself I just did a simple meander, focusing on not crossing back over any of the stitching. Lesson learned here-be careful with scale. I started out on a scale that was probably a little too small for the look I really wanted, but again just decided to run with it once I got started. Definitely something I'll keep a closer eye on next time. 

Shot of the back, with the label. The backing fabric was very shiny, and went well with the front of the quilt and the red and gold finding. I didn't take a picture of it, but I actually followed the AQS guidelines for adding a sleeve as an exercise in doing it right. Gold star for AQS having a YouTube video to help me along!I'm actually quite pleased with how that sleeve turned out, so I'm happy I took the extra time to do it the "right" way. I'll probably keep adding that extra effort for all of my future wall hangings, instead of my usual "OMG I'm almost done just slap something on there" effort. 

So with ONE finish done for this year, I'm working on my next one! Hopefully I'll get some pictures taken this week. I've got several other VERY VERY exciting quilting and sewing projects going on, but since I don't want to get burnt out on just one thing I'm going to try and spend a little time doing different things to keep it fun.