If you have ever tried to draw a tree properly, you will know that it is harder than it looks. Somehow, drawing the shapes you see doesn’t always lead to a credible tree picture. Which makes translating it into fabric even more impressive.

Flowers, being smaller, can be easier, but it can be difficult to maintain realism while simplifying the shapes into fabric.

Here are my tree and flower pictures from the Festival of Quilts 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. My favourite is the tree with multi coloured bark, almost like flames laping up its trunk, with branches that are remeniscent of a maypole in full operation.