Color Play! Summer Flowers

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Have you looked through the bright and beautiful new issue of McCall’s Quilting yet? It’s bursting with gorgeous patterns that are perfect for summer—fabulous florals blooming on quilts of all sizes, buzzy bee creations, décor pieces that bring the life and color of the season into your space, and strikingly original designs from our talented and creative contributors; now available in digital and print editions.

*McCall’s Quilting* July/August + Sept/Oct 2024

One of those wonderful designs is Summer Flowers by Bonnie Osness.

Bonnie made blocks with big, bright retro-style flowers, constructing them with a versatile, clever turned-edge technique with interfacing (if you haven’t tried this technique for applique, it’s an excellent addition to your skill set). For my version, I wanted to explore her flower motif a bit more and go beyond the block to a new composition.

Beyond the Block

This cute border print from Robert Kaufman comes in white, black, and light green.

While using a floral print collection to make a floral applique design might be a bit too much for some, it seemed fun to try so try I did! I found the border prints of the Cascading Flowers collection by Debbie Beaves for Robert Kaufman so fun and exuberant so I thought I could pair them with a fun and exuberant flower motif as well.

I adjusted the templates for fusible raw-edge applique by eliminating the seam allowance. Then I decided to split the center circle in half and do the flower in two different colorways. I stitched strips of the border print together and started arranging my applique patches along the seam. My original plan was to do one side of petals in green prints, but quickly realized there was not sufficient contrast between the white background and green petals.

So, I switched gears and cut out 6 petals in various black prints. Plenty of contrast now.

You don’t need much masking tape to hold patches in place before fusing them.

The trickiest part of the process was making sure that all the patches were in the correct place as I started fusing them. Little bits of masking tape can hold everything securely while I work, and can be easily removed with no sticky residue or fabric distortion.

The Finish Line

And we’re done with a quilt top. That was FAST!

I added more border print strips to center and frame the flower motif, and that it that! It came together so quickly and is a really fun summer quilt top. It will be nice for picnics and other outdoor adventures once I’ve quilted it. I love how the cluster of flowers along the edges of the border print continue virtually uninterrupted along the pieced strips.

It can be really fun to think outside the block and use applique motifs in ways that the original pattern does not. It’s yet another way to infuse an existing pattern with your own ideas and creativity.

Happy quilting!