Autumn’s last leaves

In the second of my quilts with a woodland theme, I wanted to continue my depiction of ‘in-between’ seasons. In this part of the world we are coming to the end of autumn, and winter has not arrived fully yet. The trees are almost bare except for a few colourful leaves that will disappear as soon as the first winter winds blow in from the arctic. The leaves that have already fallen have formed a soft colourful carpet below the trees. Some bushes still have some berries clinging on, waiting for hungry birds to pick them clean.

The background is hand-dyed poly cotton, and the tree trunks and main branches are dyed medium weight abaca tissue. The last leaves are cut from a mixture of commercial and hand-dyed fabrics and abaca tissue. I appliquéd the leaves by hand using metallic copper threads, and attached them only at the centre ‘vein’ to allow a slightly 3D effect. The thin branches and twigs are hand stitched, as is the berry bush and its berries. I added a layer of wool fibres and more fabric leaves below the trees to give the carpet effect. A few more hand stitches in the ‘leaf litter’ hint at the dried stalks of grasses and other vegetation that have died off but are waiting to appear again next year.  I used machine quilting in the lower half to hint at both the shape of the trees and the movement of the wind through them.

Detail views: