I’ve been reading the magazines I got at the bookshop at the show, and many of them are Quilting Arts. I signed up for their emails, and recently they had a reader challenge. It was called Into Nature. Here is the challenge “Create a small art quilt (6” x 9”, vertical orientation) that reflects your personal connection to the natural world. Explore nature-related themes—leaves, stems, roots, flowers, spores, seeds, or growth cycles—as inspiration for this challenge. Your ideas might come from a specific place, a fleeting moment outdoors, a beloved garden, or abstract responses to nature’s forms and systems.” I had an idea immediately as the concept of Shinrinyoku popped into my head. Shinrinyoku is a Japanese word conveying the feeling of being connected to the natural world, of the restorative effect of being in the light coming through the trees, literally taking a “forest bath”. I have the good fortune to be able to do this almost every day right on our property.
The vision in my head was to use browns and greens to create a forest, then use a shimmery gold organza I knew was in the stash for sunbeams. I dug around in the greens until I found a print with just leaves in shades of green. Then I found three browns so the trees would have variety and the lighter brown would recede a bit to create a feeling of depth.
I fused heat and bond to the back of the browns and cut tree shapes. The raw edge organza strips are pinned on the edges to hold them in place.
Fusing was a challenge in itself, as the iron would be too hot for the organza. So, I pressed the piece from the back. This fused the tree shapes in place. Then I ran a stitching line around the edge to hold the organza in place.
I cut individual leaves from the print to fuse on top of the tree branches.
Fusing these were tricky, as I had to use just the point of the iron. I added them in layers, overlapping the organza and each other.
The top was layered with the same leaf print for backing and a layer of batting. The quilting was done by outlining the tree shapes, and edge stitching the sunbeams.
I did the stitching using three colors of thread – gold for the sunbeams, brown for the trees and a bit of green to keep the leaves in place.
I embroidered the label for the back.
The piece was bound in the usual manner with stitching to the front, turning to the back and finishing by hand. A paper fern was added to the lower left corner to give a bit more interest in the forest floor as well as add another material for a mixed media piece.
I submitted the photographs to the magazine challenge, but it was not selected as a finalist. Still, I love this piece, and I think I will embellish it a bit more with some beading for entry into the fair this fall.
These types of small project challenges are pretty appealing right now. The finish is fast, too. Do you enjoy small challenges like this?
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Last chance for my sample sale – click on Memorial Day Gift Sale to see what is still available.
From My Carolina Home 
WOW, that’s beautiful!
Nicely done, Carole. I love how the gold ribbons run through the forest as sunlight. You did a good job representing the forest and your creativity shone through!
Isn’t that gorgeous?! It would have been beautiful with just the trees and leaves, but the shimmery sunlight beams add so much. You did a great job challenging yourself to figure out how to make your forest view into fabric! I have never tried a challenge quite like that, but do enjoy being challenged to try something new.
Carole, I love this! You are amazing with your talents!!
wow, i love that! the fussy cut leaves made all the difference, and the organza.. genius!!
I love this idea and the name for this piece is perfect. You are indeed fortunate to live near a forest and bathe in it daily.
Carole, what a great piece! I think you captured the feeling of warm sunlight through the trees perfectly. I have never made anything like this. I don’t particularly like to do appliqué. I don’t think mine turns out very well. Beautiful work, certainly worth entering in the fair.
Niki
I love this and can’t imagine why it wasn’t chosen.
I really love the way you captured the shafts of light coming through the trees. And thank you for the introduction to shinrinyuko; what a beautiful concept.
Look at what you produced just by having your imagination stroked by reading that article in the magazine. I knew those Quilting Arts would be so enjoyable for you.
Mary :))
very pretty scene and nice work too. I love walking on trails among the woods but remember you have bears there and wonder if you take walks but need to take something with you to make noise with or are they not in that area so much?
This is such a lovely piece to show your connection to nature! The sun beams and different shades of tree trunks really do show dimension. Great work!!
I love the Quilting Arts magazines. You created a nice entry. Looking forward to seeing it beaded.
It’s lovely! Looks like the view outside my window this morning, sunbeams & all.
this is gorgeous! Well done on interpreting your vision.
Carole, this is absolutely beautiful. The colors, the texture, the depth — it all works. Yes, you must enter it.
Hi Carole, You are sooo creative! I have no idea what I would do with those guidelines. They lost me at “reflects your personal connection to the natural world.” I just have never gotten connecting abstract concepts to anything from writing themes about novels to putting them into an image. You rocked it! Mary Ellen
Carole-this is beautiful and very creative. I love the layering effect with the leaves snd sunbeams. That organza would have given me fits but it does have a nice effect. I agree with everyone else who encouraged you to enter in at the fair later in the year!
Love your technique of using organza for the sun rays through the trees. Fabulous.
Love the organza to bring light into your forest. Awesome!
That is a wonderful concept and design, Carole! It got me thinking about what I would have done.