As I was walking on the Boardwalk by the Strand in Oceanside or along the paths by the Marina, I always had my camera with me. I happened to see a palm tree trunk, left as a huge palm had just been cut down but a large stub had been left. There were all kinds of things sticking out of the trunk, sharp pieces of bark along with pieces of old leaf stems. The texture was very appealing to me and I immediately saw an art quilt in my inner eye. I had a very lovely hand-painted fabric in soft greens and yellows which would be a nice background for the image. I used all metallic threads in various colors to create textures all through the trunk. It was a good time to do free form quilting which was perhaps not the easiest to do with metallic thread. If you love your sewing machine, you can do it! Have you ever tried sewing with metallics?