Maple Leaf Patchwork Fun

I found myself with a little spare time this last week and knew I needed to make an autumnal wall-hanging for my living room.  I have a Halloween Wall Hanging.  I have a Christmas one.  I have a Valentine's Quilt, and who knows how many more, but dang it, I need one with falling leaves...for Fall.  That's now.  I need it now!

But it had to be pretty, falling leaves.  I am partial to the maple leaf.  I have several friends who are Canadian.  The lovely, Feral Turtle, comes to mind, so that could possibly be why I love the maple leaf as much as I do.  The Mister loves hockey, so that could be it...naw, that's not it at all.  I'm sure it's because of all the lovely Canadians in my life.  Or maybe the maple leaf is just a naturally pretty leaf?  Whatever reason, the maple leaf was what I desired.

Quilting a maple leaf is a bit tricky, though.  It has this long, pointy bit in the middle, and a stem.  I mean, to be fair, most leaves have a stem, and I guess they would cause just as much trouble as a maple leaf stem, but forget about all that.  My point is this, it's tricky with patchwork quilting.  Trust me.  Maple leaf or birch.  Even an elm...

So, I did what any quilter would do.  I  got an idea, and I made it my own.  I decided to design my leaf using half paper-piece for the middle pointy bit and the stem and patchwork for all the rest.  Half -Square triangles to the rescue.

Pretty good!  Need to change the stem up a bit, but by George I think I've got it!

I assembled all my prettiest, fall-ish fabrics and got to work.  I wanted it to be scrappy and fun.

Because I'm wild, I decided to use burlap for my trim.  But then realized I wanted a kind of, white on white effect and so put corner squares in using my main fabric.  I think I love it.

p.s.  burlap loves to unravel.  Be aware.  I would recommend using a 1/2" seam allowance, except I didn't have enough burlap to accommodate that.  Living on the edge over here!  Unraveling bedamned.

Uggghh!! Now I need new pillow cases.  Hi, cute niece.

I hope you like my new Fall wall-hanging.  I'm pretty darned pleased.  If you are interested in buying this pattern, I will have it up on My Etsy soon

Thanks for reading!

Heather