BEHIND THE QUILT
FLOWERS & SOFT SHADES
“The idea for this quilt came from a hotel near my home that has the most wonderful tulip garden, or ‘parterre’, and original chinoiserie hand-painted wallpaper. In order to get the quilt finished quite quickly and because I already had two major hand appliqué projects on the go, I decided to use mainly bonded appliqué for the flowers etc. The fabric is a Moda fabric designed by French General using her lovely subtle blues, greys and soft reds. If you have time, it would be lovely to do traditional hand appliqué, which is my favourite, using my template-free method of appliqué, which is on YouTube and in my books. All my fabrics are from the French General collection, including the basic plains; the only non-FG fabric is the stripe for the bias borders/binding, but a mixture of other colours would be just as good if you would like to use up your stash. The quilt was quilted beautifully by Sandy Chandler of the Quilting Company – we discussed how I would like it to be quilted and I very much wanted the flowers and the pattern in the lattice to come to the fore. The result is better than I dared to imagine – I really love how the design looks like it is growing from one block to another!” – JO COLWILL
You will need
■ Pale blue plain background fabric – 2yds■ Blue large print floral fabric (sashing around house blocks) – 1⅔yds■ Light and dark fabric – Twelve (12) to sixteen (16) fat quarters■ Blue stripe fabric (inner border trim, circles and binding) – ⅔yd■ Print fabric for the treetops■ Pale beige fabric for the tree trunks and paths – One (1) fat quarter■ Red or pink fabric for the tulips – One (1) fat quarter■ White fabric for the snowdrops – One (1) fat eighth■ Green fabric for the snowdrop leaves – One (1) fat eighth■ Mottled green for the stems and tulip leaves – One (1) fat quarter■ Backing fabric – 4yds■ Batting – 74in x 74in■ Bondaweb Lite – 1⅙yd■ Stitch & Tear – 20in■ A ½in bias maker■ Baking parchment (to protect your iron)■ Templates: tulip bowl centre appliqué, tree and house blocks and large, small, tiny circle flowers
