A BIT OF APPLIQUE

This is another project that was put on the back burner for a while.  While visiting Arizona several years ago, DH and I saw a wonderful baby tree of life quilt in a shop, and DH insisted I buy the pattern, designed by Chris Bubany for Dream On Productions, Tucson AZ.
I chose fabrics from my stash, but of course, didn't start working on it until a few days ago.  I spent my TV watching time preparing all the applique shapes, and decided to stitch the tree and pot onto the background fabric.

 I prefer using the back basting method, but it was difficult transferring the pattern onto the black background.  Instead, I used some wash away stabilizer for the shapes, and used a wash away glue stick to turn the edges to the back.  I stitched all the small parts to each shape, so that I only have to stitch around each shape when attaching them to the background.
As you can see, I love using bright colours on dark backgrounds, and I can hardly wait to begin the embroidered details on each shape.  I am doing the applique stitching with silk thread, as I find it disappears into the fabric.  I use 4 dark to light neutral colours, along with black and white rather than thread matching each fabric.
I plan on stitching each evening on our trip north.  I don't know if I can control the stitches well enough to stitch in a moving car!