Little Forest Block of the Month Quilt

You did it! You completed all 12 of your Little Forest Block of the Month quilt blocks! Spectacular job! 😊 Now all that’s left to do is pull your tree blocks into a quilt top!

By sticking with the skill builder challenge, you’ve developed your quilting muscles and learned lots of new quilting techniques that will serve you time and time again in your quilting practice.

Just look at all the skills you’ve got under your quilty belt after joining the Little Forest Block of the Month Quilt Along featured in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine:

• Needle turn appliqué on the maple trees featured in the Little Forest block
• Half Rectangle Triangles (or HRT) in the pine tree featured in the Twin Peaks block
• Curves and Foundation Paper Piecing in the cherry blossom tree featured in the Cherry Tree block
• Small and strip piecing featured in the Bonsai quilt block.
• Raw edge appliqué as shown in the Maple tree block.
• Working with large foundation paper piecing templates in the Fraser Fir quilt block.
• Strip piecing featured in the Striped Pine quilt block.
• Flying geese and the stitch and flip method in the Stacked Pine quilt block.
• Colour play and FPP in the Larch Tree quilt block.
• Choosing your quilty adventure between traditionally pieced oval curves or needle turn appliquéing ovals in the Poplar tree quilt block.
• Small precision piecing and combining quilting techniques in the Lodgepole quilt block.
• Strip piecing and working with templates in the Pine Tree quilt block.

And along the way you’ve tracked your progress with your Little Forest BOM Journal entries (You can download your free copy here). Have fun looking over your journal entries to see how far you’ve come!  

With your quilt blocks complete, now comes the easy part of stitching your blocks together to create your Little Forest BOM Quilt 😊

*This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission.

Quilt Top Layout

When it comes to the layout of your Little Forest Block of the Month quilt you can opt to follow the same layout featured in Love Patchwork and Quilt Magazine or have fun switching things up!

Just be mindful that two of your blocks, the Bonsai Tree and the Little Forest blocks, are a little bigger than the others. So, when you’re playing with your layout, you need to be careful not to have two of those blocks on the same row. Otherwise, you can switch things up and place your trees where they make you the happiest!

Tip – when playing with your quilt top layout, think of the colour balance of your trees.

I like to lay everything out on a design wall (tutorial on how to make your own here) and then step back to see how things are playing off one another. You can also take a picture in black and white to see how the contrast of your colours are balancing out.

So that you could see how the original layout looked when pulled together, I opted to stick with the Little Forest Quilt layout captured in the magazine.

Backing Fabric for Your Little Forest BOM Quilt

Before even perusing my fabric options for my Little Forest BOM Quilt, I knew that I wanted to feature a nature-inspired print. Something that featured trees or branches or forests.

I spent hours surfing online fabric shops to come up with the perfect backing print. Only I couldn’t find anything that matched the whimsical and fun spirit of the Little Forest Quilt design, womp womp!

It wasn’t until I found this mushroom print*, by Heather Ross from her Far Far Away III collection, that I got excited.

In case you didn’t know, there’s an interesting connection between trees and mushrooms that’s occurring beneath the ground. In fact, when you see a mushroom above the ground, that’s the “fruit of a much greater network of fungal organisms that live in the soil interwoven with tree roots as a vast network of mycelium” (source National Forest). It’s through this network that trees share water and nutrients and essentially communicate with one another.

It’s beyond fascinating to learn how these organisms are connected and work together.

So, now you understand why I was so excited to find the mushroom print! Plus, it’s in some of my favourite colours: peachy coral and that lime green, I just couldn’t resist!

Quilting Your Little Forest BOM Quilt

Quilting Design

There were a few quilting designs I considered for machine quilting my Little Forest Block of the Month Quilt.

I initially thought of doing organic wavy lines in a white thread to mimic snow drifting across my forest.

But when I thought about it a little more, I didn’t want my quilt to be Winter specific, so I decided to go with 1” straight-line quilting.

I love how the consistency and linearity of those lines keep the focus on the trees, which was where I wanted the focus to be!

Quilting Thread

Since I wanted the focus to be on the patchwork I didn’t want the quilting thread to detract from the quilt design. So, even though I had been eager to feature one of these pretty coloured threads, in the end, I went with my favourite 50wt natural white thread* from Aurifil.

It keeps it classic and streamlined.

Binding Your Little Forest Quilt

You’re probably not surprised to see that my binding colour of choice is Peachy Keen* – ha!

There’s a few reasons I went with this solid:

• First, I just adore the colour and it makes me happy to stitch with so, a no-brainer in my mind.
• Second, I loved how the colour coordinated with the backing print and kept everything tied together.
• Third, I wanted the binding to help blocks with that same colour to pop a little. There was quite a bit of green going on in the quilt and I wanted to keep things bright and fun!

Materials and Notions Featured in the Little Forest Block of the Month Quilt

Here’s an overview of everything I’ve used to make my own Little Forest Quilt:

• Little Forest Block of the Month Quilt Pattern – Available exclusively in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine Issue 122*
• Ruby and Bee Solids in the colours:
  • Perfect Pink*
  • Peachy Keen*
  • Pumpkin*
  • Mandarin*
  • Claret*
  • Avocado*
  • Limeade*
  • Evergreen*
  • Kelp*
  • Pasture
  • Mushroom*
• Linen White for the background, although this* Ruby and Bee solid would work perfectly too!
• Mushroom backing print*
• Sewing machine*
• Sewing machine needles*
• 50wt thread for piecing*
• 50 wt thread for quilting*
• Square ruler*
• Rotary cutter*
• Cutting mat*
• Iron*
• Pressing table or wool pressing mat*
• Pins*
• Pincushion
• Small snips*
• Design wall – tutorial to make your own here

Quilts in the Wild Photoshoot

Before shipping my quilt to the UK to be photographed by the LPQ team, I wanted to make sure to grab some of my own photos.

There are two reasons I like to snap some pictures before wrapping up my quilts for the trek across the pond and that is:

1. In case something goes awry and my quilt gets lost, I want to at least have a photo to remember her by – ha!
2. Depending on when things get published, I don’t always get my quilt back before the publication goes live. I like having some of my own photos to share with you while I wait for her return 😉

It was back in the summer that I took these photos and I remember that day being quite moody weather-wise.

Exploring photography lighting

I’m constantly exploring and playing with the lighting in my quilts in the wild photos. Sometimes dark moody days help capture the true essence of colours without being overly exposed. The clouds were super dark and they were rolling toward me super fast! I could see the rain heading my way over the lake as I tried to get my shots in.

The rain hit just as I was grabbing my camera and dashing to the house for cover!

Those clouds certainly make for a dramatic background

The Little Forest Block of the Month quilt pattern is exclusively available in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine Issue 122* available on newsstands in the UK and heading internationally in the coming weeks. If you’re like me and based outside of Europe, the quickest way to get your hands on the monthly quilt blocks is to get a digital subscription here*.

Thank you so much for joining me in this modern skill-builder sew-along! I’ve so enjoyed seeing your unique takes on your tree blocks and love how you stepped up to the quilty challenge! Bravo!

Can’t wait to see your Little Forest Quilt pop up on Instagram under the #LittleForestBOM hashtag!

Happy quilting!

xo

Shannon

PS did you notice the cute Bonsai and Little Forest stickers in the shop?!

---

Never miss a post – sign up for the weekly newsletter.

This post uses affiliate links. For more info, visit the FAQ page.