Meadow (a quilt tutorial)

The 1st of September is considered the first day of Spring here in Australia (regardless of what the weather is doing, Australians are stubborn like that). What better way to celebrate spring than with a quilt-full of flowers?

Meadow4

This lap sized (51.5″ x 65.5″) quilt is a busy mix of nine-patch blocks and appliqué and is a great scrap buster. I’ve called it Meadow for obvious reasons.

Meadow9

The base of the quilt is made from three different sizes of nine-patches, small, medium and large.

Meadow3

The amount of green in each nine-patch group also changes – the small blocks are heavy on the green, the medium less so, and the largest blocks have the least amount of green.

meadowlargepatchmeadowmediumpatch

meadowsmallpatchOnce sewn together, the nine-patches are then chopped apart, right down the middle each way.

Meadow2

Then you can have fun mixing up their orientation and sewing them all back together again!

The large blocks are sewn into a 6 x 2 block formation.

The medium blocks are sewn into a 9 x 4 block formation

The small blocks are sewn into a 12 x 6 block formation

The three block formations are then sewn together – small at one end, medium in the middle, large at the other end. Now, they are not exactly the same width – so don’t try and make seams meet when you bring them together, rejoice in the lack of seam matching! You will need to square up a little once the top is sewn, trimming down the overhang.

nine

You now have your canvas ready for flowers.

I went through my scraps and my stash to find any floral fabrics I had on hand. I sorted them into rainbow order and tried to keep a somewhat even distribution of the colours.

Meadow12

Small pieces of double-sided fusible interfacing* were ironed onto the back of each flower, which were then cut out with scissors. Once I had all my flowers prepped I spread out three bed sheets on my tiled floor and lay out my quilt on top. I arranged my flowers as I wanted them and then went through and peeled the backing paper off each one. I gently pressed each flower down with a not-too-hot iron (hence the bed sheets, to protect my floor). Once done I could move the top to my ironing board and give it a thorough press without fear of my flowers moving.

Meadow11

With all the flowers fixed it was time to machine appliqué! My method of choice was raw edge.

I used transparent filament (here’s an equivalent on Amazon*) to sew the flowers down with my FMQ foot. A note – don’t iron the quilt with a very hot iron after using this in case it melts.  Just use one of the lower settings.

Meadow14

Lucky that filament is clear because my FMQ was pretty much all over the place (this was my first attempt at free motion). Fortunately, that can’t be noticed and, hey, those flowers are not going anywhere as I often needed 2 or 3 round trips to ensure I got close to all the edges.

When all the flowers were appliquéd down I basted the quilt as normal and quilted with a loose wave pattern. The waves are more dense over the flowers and open up out towards the edges of the quilt.

Meadow6

For backing I was lucky enough to find a duvet cover with the exact colours and wavy shapes I needed. There was even a European pillow cover included which yielded enough fabric for the binding.

Meadow13

There’s no denying this quilt was a lot of work, but it felt good to make something new just from stash.

I hope you’ve had the chance to do some sewing, too!

Meadow5

If you’d like these instructions in PDF format, so you can save and print them at your leisure, then see the form below:

*These are affiliate links, which means if you purchase through the link I receive a small, but much appreciated, commission. This is at no cost to you – Amazon pays for it (thanks, Amazon :). These commissions help keep Bonjour Quilts’ website expenses paid, so thank you!

Share or Pin for later:

Leave a comment

You'll be the first to know ;)

Quilting tutorials. Behind-the-scenes fun. Great deals on patterns. Join 14,000+ subscribers & stay in touch.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Bonjour Quilts logo nameplate