Hexagon Tree for do. Good Stitches

Look, look! I had such fun making this:

It's my block for the Love circle of do. Good Stitches, a charity quilting bee. This month, Ara Jane asked us for tree blocks on white. My head was spinning with so much freedom until I landed on a bowl full of hexagons that have been languishing in my kitchen...

I arranged the hexagons randomly on a white block and then sketched the tree trunks and branches in between with pencil. Then, I removed the hexagons and machine stitched the outline of the trunk and branches in medium brown thread. The idea to fill in the tree with free-form stitching came from Meg's book "Sew Liberated". She makes some cool tree pillows with trunks like these. Meg suggested free motion stitching using a stabilizer fabric underneath. After some trial and error, I decided not to mess with stabilizer or free motion. I stitched this with a simple clear presser foot. It was quick and fun! Last I machine appliqued the hexagons in place.