The "Mushroom Trees" UFO

Here's a long-term UnFinishedObject that's finally filtered to the top--and then the 'finished' column. *whew*
It's had several stops & starts along the way, & I'm very sorry not to have true 'before' & 'after' pictures. Started out when I was fortunate enough to take a Joan Colvin class many moons ago (sad to say, she passed away in 2007; here's a link to her final book).  The class was great--learned a lot--and got a good start on two projects. One--an attempt at Ebey's Landing--ended up getting reduced down & was added as the center picture in Devin's graduation quilt (give you a clue as to how long my UFO's been in limbo?!).

Anyway--the other, bigger item languished--and then went into a box, out of sight when Dev pegged it the 'mushroom trees' picture. (unfortunately, he was right...& I couldn't stop seeing mushrooms when I looked at it!) Honestly forgot all about it when I put together my first list of UFO's so it wasn't even on the radar screen until a couple a years later.
I finally got after it on one of my day-outings to my friend's long arm studio. She's a great art-quilter herself & has done some amazing items with organza & a soldering iron.
Yup--that's right! The plumbing tool turned quilter's friend. The trick for this approach is being with the long arm & all the aforementioned items at the same time. Get the project loaded on the long-arm & then overlay the organza of choice (in this example it's a nice golden orange).

 Using cotton (only) thread, stitch all the way around the perimeter of the area you want covered--don't do the final quilting yet. Then, using a very hot soldering iron with a nice pointed tip--work your way around the edge that's just been stitched. (Like in the photo below--& the little bit of 'tree trunk' in the lower left above.)

This picture (above) shows what's left after the first cut. All of the varied golds, yellows & oranges blend together so much more subtly--it's a cool (& fast!) fix.One key thing when using the soldering iron: what ever is being cut away needs to be synthetic & the under pieces & thread need to be cotton.
The next layer--which unfortunately I don't have a photo of--was a nice, rich, purple toule (which is just a very fine net). The color mutes pieces beneath, but not as much as you would think--and adds a wonderful depth. (You can compare the difference between the uncovered areas above & the final view below.)
So the purple cover went over the whole piece--and was then cut away at the border with the background.
Now I can quilt! Lots of fun thread play to add texture & color variations...
The next challenge: how to finish it? There are many Joan Colvin ideas I've used since her class, but one approach that I will not do again: she has you start with the back, with batting on top, right on your working wall. All the top (design) pieces are pin basted so you end up with a very complicated, prickly sandwich ready to quilt. Not a bad concept--but my fatal error was a back & bat that didn't quite measure up. Had to do some Houdini work to make it look planned--which it was not.

click on the pix for a bigger view...

So here's the final product--it measures about 32" x 36". The hanging rod (which needs to be a little shorter) is some great black bamboo from a friend's yard. (They were just gonna toss it on the trash pile!!) In the end, I think this was a UFO worth salvaging...