Autumn Treasures

There are so many treasures in Autumn.  It's my favorite time of year  for many reasons, not the least of which is the glorious color that surrounds us.  The trees turn the most fabulous reds, oranges, russets, golds and coppers.   While there aren't many colors I don't like, the fall colors are some of my favorites.  Even summer's left over flowers and foliage take on a luminous glow as the angle of the sun begins to change into it's winter mode.  Spectacular!

A few years ago I cross stitched this sampler.  I have no idea where I found the chart, but it expressed my feeling about Autumn.  It's a time to treasure because it's so fleeting and everyone is so busy.  Once I finished stitching it I didn't want another framed cross stitch sampler.  So, I decided to make a small art quilt out of it.  I foraged among all my fall fabrics and beads.  My stash of fabric and beads in fall colors resemble the abundance of fall.  After all, they are my favorite colors!

This is what I came up with.

I used two shades of Cherrywood sueded cottons for the background.  After sewing the pieces together I used WonderUnder to foil leaf shapes on the fabric.  Using WonderUnder is my favorite way to foil fabric.  I like to do it as a first step, so that when I sew over it the foil flakes off giving the piece a more distressed look.  I free motioned quilted around the leaves and then added a batik over it.  I  fringed the cross stitched sampler and stitched it down to the background.  I then added beads and lucite leaves (another favorite).  I found the piece of wire work that I had made in a class, and added that to the bottom of the sampler.  After assembling the quilt with the batik as a backing fabric, I edge stitched around the sampler and the batik.  I free motion stitched a leaf shape using a variety of threads, including some of the linen threads I had pulled from the sampler when I fringed the edges.  I beaded the leaf and attached it to the quilt. 

I hang the quilt from a small vintage looking hanger, but I'm going to put fabric loops on it and hang it from a small branch. 

Here are some of the details.

. 

I hope you're enjoying all the treasures the season has to offer.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by.