Tree of Life
As part of Seminar 2013, Branching Out, Elizabeth Bonnett digitized Fran Oakley's Jacobean Tree of Life pattern that was created many years before.
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Sandra Toyne added the flowers for our three territories, and several WEG members stitched samples to display at Seminar, when it was made available to EAC members.
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Here are two pieces completed by EAC members,followed by the WEG examples:
This piece was stitched by Ann Jarvis.
"I have used Fran Oakley's Tree of Life design on a quilt square to be incorporated into a quilt commemorating Canada's 150th anniversary here in Ancaster, Ontario. I used embroidery floss."
Read Anne's documentation here.
Pearl Sceviour, from Ontario, re-created it as an appliquéd quilt. She sent us photos of the finished product, which is quite stunning. As well as a picture of the quilt, she provided comments on the project...
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Her thoughts during the design phase: "Thank you and the WEG for the use of the pattern. There were times when my fingers were asking why are you doing this. I don't normally use a lot of batik fabrics as needling through 6+ layers is tough going."
... and after the quilt was completed:"I did try to be as accurate as possible however I can't achieve the lovely detail of embroidery. That being said I do love the finished product all the same."
From Pearl Sceviour:
"I'd had to put some thinking into this before contacting you as I wasn't even sure how to approach it, but a few days of staring do wonders!
My first decision (was) to decide if I need to scale it up for turned edge - hand appliqué but I think, if I do, it might be a maximum of 25%. I've worked with a lot of very small pieces before. A bit more staring required there. I expect there may be some embroidery of stems as 1/8" is about as small a bias stem as can be expected.
The black background makes it difficult to photograph.
It's hand appliquéd using Cantik Batiks (Canadian line of fabrics) to the same scale as the original embroidery pattern. While not visible, the background is quilted with 13 maple leaves."
