Seven Houses Five Trees

After considering several things that actually come in "twelves," I decided to create a quilt using elements of 12 in my design. I enjoy creating graphic landscapes and hadn't really explored that in any of my other 12x12 pieces. (My identity and math quilts are technically landscapes, but they are missing the usual elements from my quilted landscapes.)

I also haven't really created any quilts in strong, straightforward colors. Red is especially lacking. My chair quilt is colorful, but in a different way.

So I started off with the very general idea of creating a landscape including some red. I also wanted to work more loosely. I was inspired by paintings I found in Nino Art Studio on Etsy. Eventually, I created this wacky little world.

The black tree and house elements make up the first 12. There are two sets of 12 green brush strokes on the right. There are also 12 red dots in the sky. And Roman numeral 12s stitched across the hillside.

I loved doing all the hand stitching. It's a lot of stitching and it takes a lot of time, but as I'm stitching I never wish I were doing it any differently. (As long as I've allowed enough time before the deadline.)

I think the binding is especially effective. I fused a simple blue binding and covered it with long stitches all the way around to match the color of the main part of the quilt.
I love the way the blue binding still peeks through.

This was a quilt that kept wanting more. More paint, more layers, more stitching. I may have stopped too soon. And I really didn't loosen up as much as I would like to. But, I'm pleased and I'd like to go knock on the doors of those seven houses!