don't fence me in

i started this little 13"x20" quilt on a tuesday night while hanging out with my "twisted thimble" quilting group. i pulled some fabric scraps from our community swap pile and just started snipping out flowers and shapes as we chatted. i eventually saw a fenceline with flowers and shrubs emerge from the fabric pieces.

i pinned it all down the way i liked on some polka dot fabric, brought it home, and there it sat for a few months. then a few weeks ago i machine-stitched all the pieces in place, like raw-edge appliqué. finally today i finished it - yay!

i used a piece of upholstery fabric on the back, and flipped the nicely fringed selvage edge over to bind the top edge. i trimmed the other edge of the backer fabric with my wavy-edged rotary cutter and flipped it to the front to bind the bottom edge. i stayed loose with the machine quilting...the streaks and squares on the top remind me of farmhouses and grasses in the distance. the freeform wavy lines at the bottom look like the ground beneath my little fence.
i opted not to bind the sides...i like how leaving it "frameless" makes the fenceline seem like it might keep on going. i just did a zigzag stitch along the sides. plus i'm all about making shortcuts look like intentional design!