Design Wall Monday

 I've got the top bit sewn down along one edge. The roots are still just pinned. I need to add leaves to the to between some of the limbs. I'm also going to add a darker green in a circle around the tree. The tree is about 24" across. I'm also going to add borders with "The Lord be with you" the way the priest starts prayers...seemed appropriated.

It took a long time to pin, and a long time to sew what I've sewn. I don't think it's going to take as long as I thought.

I want to have it done by early November so I can quilt it. Don't know what I'm going to do for the quilting.

If you want to see more design walls, check out Judy's blog.

I decided I should add a bit more information about this. I am making the quilt for the pastor of my church. He is retiring after 11 1/2 years with us. He made a trip to England, including Iona, and really enjoyed the Celtic spirituality of Iona. My husband works for the church, and has a trinity knot quilt on his wall (that I made) that the pastor really liked. I decided since he is retiring to use the tree of life, and did a google image search using celtic and tree of life. This is actually based on a design for a tattoo.

I used Microsoft Paint to make up the design for the whole top (to the left). The words "The Lord be with You" are included because that is how he starts many prayers, and gets everyone's attention when we're in a group.

When I was finished with the design I found a free poster program online and enlarged the whole thing to about 36" square. I then traced it because it was quite pixelated and used the traced version to mark the knots and cut out the trunk.

 I'm going to quilt it with a white/light backing so it can be signed by the parishoners on the back. The pastor is leaving December 4, so I gotta hurry!