Floral Fantasy Friendship Quilt
I love floral fabrics!
When my friend Jill, kindly shared some of her beautiful floral fabrics with me, I thought,……what could be better than mixing them together with some of my florals to make a friendship quilt, with all the flowers in the garden. One of the nicest things about gardening, is to share cuttings and seedlings or propogations of plants with family, friends and neighbours. In other words, everything in the garden has meaning, just like life….. So rather than have a mono-culture in the garden , it’s lovely to share your plants. Likewise with fabric….
So that is the inspiration for this quilt, friendship and flowers.
When using larger scale prints which have so much beauty, it’s nice to be able to see them, without cutting them too small. I think it’s a beautiful garden.
Anyhow…..this is what I came up with.
Maybe you can share some fabrics with a special friend/s and make a friendship quilt too.
Finished quilt size, approximately 54 1/2″ x 54 1/2″.
Here is how I did it.
Ingredients for the Floral Fantasy Friendship Quilt
124 of 5″ x 5″ assorted bright floral squares
Sixteen of 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ antique pink squares
Eight of 5″ x 27 1/2″ antique pink strips
If you would like to make your own antique pink fabric check out the link.
Method
Incidentally today I am sewing on a Singer 66 sewing machine.
Using 80 of the 5″ x 5″ squares, arrange in pleasing four patches. Make sure that no two same fabrics are adjacent to each other. Make twenty, four patch units.
Take the sixteen 9 1/2″ x 9 1’2″ antique pink squares and thirty two of the 5″ X 5″ floral squares. Draw a diagonal line across the back of the 5″ x 5″ floral squares. Attach a 5″ x 5″ square to one corner of a 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ antique pink square, Sew across the drawn line. Put a second 5″ x 5″ square on the opposite corner and sew across. Trim to 1/4″ and press toward the corners.
Repeat for the remainder fifteen of the 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″antique pink squares.
Take five of the four patches and four of the half snowballed blocks. Lay out the blocks in a nine patch configuration as pictured above. Sew the blocks together. Make four blocks like this.
When the four blocks are laid out, they will look like this, but do not sew them together yet.
To make the Block Border
Only two sides of each block will be bordered. You will need three 5″ x 5″ floral squares and two of the 27 1/2″ x 5″ antique pink strips for each of the four blocks.
Border each block individually. Using the same technique, snowballing one end only, of two of the 5″x 27 1/2″ strip. Please note that each will face a diffent direction. Use the third 5″ x5″ square for the cornerstone.
Repeat for the other three blocks.
Now all that remains is to sew the four finished blocks together and that is the quilt top completed.
Now for the quilting!
I decided to quilt tulips into the background areas. I have pieced and quilted this quilt entirely by treadle. It seemed only fitting.
I used a Singer 31K20 to do the quilting.
Here is a link to the Treading Tulips Pattern.
This was a very enjoyable process.
But this is not the end of the story….To see the Floral Fantasy Friendship quilt all quilted and finished, click on the next link.
Have a Floral Fantasy Day!
