If Only We Had Planted More Trees, Part II

So here finally, is the finished quilt.

You will notice that it differs from the working idea, by the addition of other people.  This was a hard decision for me to make.  I loved the very stark look in my original idea, but given that this is to be entered into a competition, I thought it would be more visually pleasing to others, with a bit more action.

If you click on the photos, you will see them in a slideshow format, so that you can see the detail more clearly.  You can see from the photo above of the full quilt, the new figures are very small.

These figures have also been thread painted, but as they were so small, I printed photos onto photo fabric, and thread painted directly onto them, before cutting them out.

I did this because at this small size (especially the man on the hill), they would have been impossible for me to draw.  I LOVE the walking man in blue.  I think he really works well, adding movement.

I am still not 100% with the shadows, but I don't think they hit you in the eye.  At least I hope not!  

The quilt is bound with more of my hand painted fabric, except the yellow, which is a commercial fabric.  It was rather difficult to get all the colour lined up just so, but I think overall it is effective.  I actually wanted it to be a quilt without a binding (using the pillowcase method), but for a competition, I don't think you should hide all the quilting.

The competition title for the quilt is:
If only we had planted more trees.  Plant a tree today and help to stop desertification.  
Yep, quite a mouthful, but I am trying to meet the requirements of the competition, and feel I have to labour it a bit!  After the competition it will be back to If only We Had Planted More Trees.  The distinction being that for the competition it was supposed to be a positive message about what we can do, whilst the quilt for me, is more to do with past actions and their results.

I painted the label for the quilt with Tsukineko Inks, and used fabric markers to write on it.  Having sewn the label on, I realised that the fabric (the same one I used in the binding) was apt to crease, given its large size.  I therefore stitched in random branches into the tree, which secures the label to the backing fabric.  I checked each and every stitch as I made it, just to make sure I didn't stitch through to the front.

So the quilt ends up being my rant against impending global warming and desertification.  If we each plant a tree, we would be doing our bit.  Yep, that's from the girl who has them chopped down in her garden in France, as the leaves get in the pool!

With the exception of the shadows, the quilt has been fun to do.  It may not be entirely the way the judges expected the theme to be interpreted, and will not be to everyone's taste. However, what the quilt may lack in composition, I think I can say that  it makes up for in the quilting and the thread painting.

Oh, and if you were wondering why it took me so long to get this post up, I decided to make a second quilt to enter into the show!  Yep, being a glutton for punishment and with less than a week to do it, I just decided to try with a totally different quilt.  I finished it this afternoon!!!   I'll post that one in a few days.  Now I have to go and see whether I can find somewhere to submit my quilts.

The show is at the end of June.  Wish me luck.