The Summer Garden Pattern is now available in my shop!
When my old college roommate asked to make a quilt for her baby girl, I started sketching out some flower ideas. I prefer traditional piecing to appliqué, so I was playing with a traditionally pieced flower with a sawtooth star center. And that's how Summer Garden Pattern was born. My friend ultimately decided to go with an appliqué pattern (see that quilt here!), and I made this one anyway because I loved it so much.
This is my most versatile pattern to date. I've written instructions for a large crib size (40" x 53") using 12" finished blocks and a throw size (56" x 74") using 16" finished blocks. Since the pattern is block based, you make any quilt size you want by choosing how many of which size block you need.
The pattern is written to get two flower blocks from one cut of fabric. The 12" finished blocks have instructions from FQ or yardage. The 16" finished blocks only have instructions from yardage, but if you wanted to use a FQ you definitely could! However, for the 16" size, a FQ will only provide enough fabric for one flower block, so you would need extra FQs depending on how big you wanted your quilt to be.
My version was made entirely from fabric I had in my stash. Some of the fabric didn't have a selvedge or didn't have identifying information on the the selvedge, so unfortunately, I don't know where all of it came from! The combination of orange, peach, and pink makes it feel bright and summer-y.
For the backing, I stumbled across this in a fabric sale. It was like this fabric was made to be the back of this quilt. The blue flowers provides a nice, calming contrast to the brightness of the front. The pops of orange and red flowers mixed in with the blue perfectly compliments the front.
Similar to Snowflakes in July, this pattern is a suitable for a confident beginner. A tutorial on the No Waste Flying Geese method can be found here, and be on the lookout for an in depth tutorial on the Magic 8 HST method coming soon. The most complex part of this pattern is paying attention to the direction of the HSTs, ;)
As I stated earlier, I originally sketched this out as a concept for a custom quilt. When the client chose a different option, I still fleshed this out to see what it could turn into.
Compared to the drawn-out process for Snowflakes in July, this came together really quickly. It's been fun to share the process in real time as I've put it together.
I made the large crib size with 12" finished blocks.
My fabulous tester, Joanne (@turtlequilterjo) made the throw size with 16" blocks. I love how she used a blue background for hers!
Click Here to see the Flying Geese tutorial.
Click here to download the No Waste Flying Geese Reference Sheet.
Be sure to tag me (@runningstitchquilts) or use the hashtags (#summergardenquilt or #rsqpatterns) so I can see what you make! :)
