Oakshott Leaves

I was so excited when Lynne contacted me with an offer to try some Oakshott Rubies.  I have been wanting some Oakshott ever since I saw Krista's quilt. I love the subtle variations in color, the sheen, the depth and the texture.  When I pictured Rubies in my head, I was thinking of true reds and had a Christmas project in mind.  When they arrived, however, I could think of nothing but fall in New England.  And that is how I arrived at this raw edge applique table runner.

I appliqued a series of New England leaves onto  my "way low volume" patchwork that I blogged about the other day.  I pieced the leaves in a variety of ways.  The maple leaves were free pieced and I think my absolute favorites.

I thought it was getting a little busy so this Sumac like branch is not pieced at all but made out of two shades of Rubies.

The other leaves were paper pieced herringbones.

I used free motion quilting with a variegated thread to stitch down and quilt the raw edge appliques.  Then I had a little fun on the background stitching rows of leaves and the words "leaf" and "fall."  You can sort of see this in the picture above.

The stems are embroidered using Lecien's Cosmo Seasons variegated embroidery floss.  They were a perfect match for the Oakshott colors.

I have more Rubies left so another project will be coming eventually.  I just loved working with them.