Tutorial - Free Pieced Trees

Fabrics for tree foliage, tree trunk, sky, and ground

Gather fabrics for the tree, the ground, the tree trunk, and the sky.

Fine tuning the pieces needed, tree trimmed to triangle shape

Trim tree foliage into a triangle.  

Cut narrow strips of sky fabric for the area 

between the lower edge of the tree and the ground.

Trim width of tree trunk as desired, 

remembering to include seam allowances.

Stitch tree triangle to sky strip

Cut and stitch a wide strip of sky fabric 

to the right side of the tree triangle, 

allowing strip to extend above AND below the triangle’s edges.

Flip and press

Flip and press, but DO NOT TRIM.

Stitch second sky strip in place.  Trim away excess from first sky strip

Cut a second long strip of sky fabric 

and attach to the tree’s left side, 

allowing ends to extend across AND beyond the first strip.

Carefully trim away the excess end from strip one.

Tree foliage framed with sky fabric

Flip and press.  Square, but do not trim, lower edge.

Assemble sky/ground and trunk/ground segments.  

Stitch left hand sky/ground strips together.

Stitch tree trunk and ground segments together.

Stitch right hand sky/ground strips together.

Assembled lower unit

Make any final adjustments to the tree trunk’s width, 

then stitch the three lower sections together.

Adding additional strip of sky fabric to each side of tree unit.

To enlarge the sky area adjacent to the tree’s foliage, 

cut and stitch additional sky fabric as needed.  

Square lower edge as needed.

Assembled unit after pressing

Stitch tree/sky unit to sky/trunk/ground unit.

Square and trim edges.

Square edges, leaving the largest possible amount of fabric.  

The excess can be trimmed away later, 

after you know how you want to use the tree.

Reverse side of squared tree unit

Seam lines as seen from the back of the tree block.

* * *

Free pieced trees allow for lots of variations --

Taller

Thinner

Shorter

Stockier

With a fat trunk

With a skinny trunk

With no trunk at all

With the trunk set on the horizon line

With the trunk set down into the ground

(below the horizon  line)

More questions to ask yourself --

Is your tree formal and elegant?

Is your tree lop-sided or wind-blown?

What about using unexpected fabrics for Seuss-like trees?

Season of the year?

Leaves?  

Fruit?  

Flowers?

And then you can personalize your tree even further --

What about adding a fussy cut cat or bird

or even a squirrel in the branches of your tree?

What about including a fussy cut dog, bicycle, 

child/children, or  chair in the area near or under the tree?

The options are endless!