This striking quilt showcases the twelve Australian birth month flowers of the year. I’ve used a black background fabric and chosen brightly colored batiks for the flowers for contemporary appeal. Each block has been sashed with a 2¼” (5.7cm) wide band composed of a strip of red sandwiched between two bands of black. Cornerstones are appliquéd with an edited version from the October Marigold (included with the collection). The quilt is finished with a 4½” (11.4cm) wide black border and black bias binding.
This quilt was designed, embroidered, and pieced by Lindee Goodall and quilted by a Tucson quilter, Barbara Angerhoffer.
Throughout the last twelve months via the Echidna P.I.E. program, we’ve used designs from the Australian Birth Month Flowers of the Year series, five of which are also included in the U.S. group, to learn embroidery skills and create a project. Now we’ll use the appliqué versions to make a quilt
I’ve created two versions of the Baltimore Birth Month Flowers of the Year quilt. For the U.S. quilt, I’ve used a white background fabric and chosen softer colored batiks for the flowers for a romantic, vintage look. Each block has been sashed with 1” (2.5cm) wide white strips set off with coral cornerstones. A narrow border of small green squares set on point frames the sashed blocks. The outer mitered corner border is scalloped and adorned in opposing corners with a trailing vine composed of single elements from various blocks, most of which were edited slightly.
If you’d like something more involved and challenging, you might prefer that one and instructions are available separately.
Echidna PIE was a series of monthly embroidery lessons based on the designs used in this quilt and was active from July 2014 through July 2015. Lessons and associated content are still available at EchidnaClub.com.au. If you’re brand new to embroidery, you may find them helpful for completing this quilt; they are not required.
These instructions are to complete the quilt and assume some basic embroidery skills. If you need more help, you can also visit LindeeGEmbroidery.com or my YouTube channel for a growing body of free content.
Skill Level
These instructions assume that you know how to do the following tasks:
- How to piece a quilt
- How to bind a quilt
- How to stitch machine embroidered appliqué using precut fabric (See included PDF, Apppliqué Basics)
- If you have a sewing field smaller than 200 x 200mm, how to rehoop for precise design placement. (For a full lesson on this, check out Echidna PIE Lesson 2, Perfect Placement Pointers, August 2014)
What’s Included
- Instructions to complete the quilt as shown
- Cornerstone design with appliqué templates
- Applique Basics PDF
A Word About Measurements
I measure stitches in metric (millimeters for density and stitch length or width) and most other measurements in imperial (inches, feet, and yards). Many of you work entirely in metric. For this project, I’ll put the measurements I actually used first and then the converted metric versions in parentheses.
For example, all my quilting rulers measure in inches so that’s what I use and my machine and embroidery software measures stitch lengths in millimeters. So, the instructions might read:
Cut strips to 2” (5.1cm) wide and stitch using a ¼” (6mm) seam with a 2.0mm stitch length.
Since meters are longer than yards by slightly more than 3” (8.6cm), I’ll simply round them off as even and the measurement will read “½ yd/m.”
Note About Links
In some cases, links to external web sites are included for more information on a technique or product. All the links were active at the time of writing but web sites can vanish and pages can change. If a link is no longer working, please let me know and then just use a search tool to see if the information can be found elsewhere.
Please read through all instructions before starting your project!
Baltimore Birth Month Flowers Quilt
Finished quilt size: approximately 48 x 60” (122 x 152cm)
Finished block size: 8 x 8” (20 x 20cm)
Feel free to adapt this pattern to your own tastes and quilting styles. If you want a larger quilt, consider setting the blocks on point or adding more or wider borders. The redwork versions of the design can quickly create additional blocks that can expand the size of your quilt with minimal effort.
Fabric
Yardage is based on 42” (107cm) wide fabric unless otherwise stated.
WOF=width of fabric
- Blocks: You’ll need to do some calculations
Although each embroidered block is trimmed to a 9” (22.8cm) square, you will need extra fabric to allow for hooping. How much extra depends on the size of your hoop and your hooping method; you may need to allow as much as 18” (45.7cm) for each block. Do not precut your blocks smaller than 10” (25.4cm) before embroidering. This extra fabric may be needed if your design is sewn off center or crooked. Also, embroidery itself tends to shrink and distort the fabric; you will still need to true up your block no matter how carefully you embroider. By trimming your blocks when you are ready to piece your quilt, you can preserve a crisp edge on your fabrics. To make the quilt as shown, you’ll need enough fabric for 12 blocks plus any practice or replacement blocks.
- Appliqués: Fat quarters or scraps in your choice of colors
- Cornerstones: ¼ yd/m (black) While you don’t actually need this much fabric for the 20 cornerstones, you will need enough fabric to hoop.
- Pieced sashing:
- ¼ yd/m for center strip (red)
- ½ yd/m for background (black)
- Border: 2 yd/m (black) I prefer to cut my borders along the length of the fabric rather than across.
- Binding: ⅝ yd/m (black)
- Backing: 4 yd/m
Cutting
- Cornerstones: If appliquéing the cornerstones, cut after embroidering—20 squares 2¾ x 2¾” (7 x 7cm) (black)
- Pieced sashing:
- 9 strips, 1¼” (3.2cm) x WOF for the center strip (red)
- 18 strips, 1¼” (3.2cm) x WOF for the outer strips (black)
- Outer border: 4 strips measured to your quilt. Add extra width as required for quilting and squaring. My final borders were trimmed to 4½”.
- Binding: Bias strips 2½” (6.35cm) x length of the perimeter plus 12” (30.5cm) (black)
Supplies
All the Birth Month Flowers of the Year blocks are interchangeable for size. Some flowers are designated for both the U.S. and Australia (March, April, June, November, December). Also, some of the flowers designated for Australia are alternates for the U.S. When I originally designed this quilt, it was for the U.S. and I chose flowers that would work well as appliqués and not look too much the same, such as Aster and Daisy.
- Embroidery Threads and appliqué fabrics as desired
- Fusible web for appliqué
- Wash-A-Way stabilizer (I used wash-away tear-away)
- Basic quilting and embroidery supplies
- Liquid starch
- Optional: Temporary embroidery spray adhesive
Fabric Preparation
All fabrics were washed and dried before cutting or stitching to preshrink.
Tips For Stitching Blocks
To conserve fabric—I would have needed to cut a 16” (40.6cm) square for each block for normal between-the-rings hooping—I cut my blocks to 10” (25.4cm) and heavily starched each block by dipping the cut blocks into full strength liquid starch and then smoothing each block out squarely and wrinkle-free on my cutting table to dry.
When “floating” projects rather than hooping, the fabric and stabilizer must be made as stable as possible. For stabilizer, I chose a wash-away product, which can either be something like Wash-Away (two layers) or a wash-away tear-away (one layer). Large straight sides on hoops allow for more slippage to occur. If your hoop does not securely hold the stabilizer when hooped by itself, an extra measure of security can be added with duct tape.
Simply tear some lengths of duct tape in half lengthwise and press onto the stabilizer on the back near the hoop edge then wrap up over the bottom and side of the hoop. As long as your hoop is clean, no sticky residue will remain.
For the fabric, starching stiffly is one measure I take, the second is basting. To get an accurate placement, I do a double-basting box process. The first baste is stitched directly onto the stabilizer as a placement guide. The second attaches the block to the stabilizer. I didn’t use any spray adhesives.
If your machine has a baste-in-the-hoop feature, now’s a great time to use it. If it doesn’t, then basting boxes can be added in a program like Embrilliance Essentials—just make each one a different color or program in a stop at your machine so that you can place the fabric after the first one sews.
I prefer adding basting boxes in software because I often make the box a different size when using it as a placement reference. When basting at the machine, it optimizes the baste to the bounding box perimeter of the design.
If you don’t have a large enough hoop to stitch the full-size block design, you’ll need to use one of the split versions to create the block. When doing multiple hoopings, I try to use a piece of stabilizer that will accommodate all of the hoopings rather than use multiple pieces of stabilizer. Press after each hooping to smooth out any creases.
Design Preparation
There’s really no preparation for the blocks themselves.
For the appliquéd cornerstones, open the included design, lgq015186. This is the same design that was included with the October Marigold, I’ve just added a basting box to it. The basting box is a scant 3mm larger than the actual cut block size. You can combine this design in your hoop as many times as will fit leaving a few millimeters between each shape. I have a hoop that was large enough to accommodate 9 blocks; which meant I could get all but 2 blocks done in just two hoopings.
After stitching, simply cut to size. Basting boxes are quite useful, especially when created in software that lets you resize them!
Assembly Instructions
Scant ¼” (6mm) seams used throughout for construction.
1. Embroider the blocks.
Embroider all the blocks and trim to size (9”/22.8cm square) making sure the design is centered.
2. Embroider the cornerstones.
Preparing the designs as previously described will make stitching the cornerstones quicker and easier. You’ll need a total of 20. Trim to size after stitching (2¾” or 7cm square).
3. Prepare the sashing strips.
The sashing strips are composed of a narrow red strip bounded by a black one on each side. The finished strips are ¾” (1.9cm) wide with a finished sashing width of 2¼” (5.7cm). While you could sew long WOF strips together and cut afterwards, it can be easier to get a more even seam on shorter lengths. In either case, you’ll need thirty-five 9” (22.8cm) long sashing strip sets
4. Piece the blocks and sashing.
- Alternating the cornerstones with the sashing strips, assemble and stitch five horizontal sashing rows
- Join appliqué blocks into four rows of three blocks alternating each block with the remaining sashing strips
5. Add the outer borders
- Measure the vertical center of the quilt to get the measurement for the two side borders. Cut two strips to that length and of the desired width, making sure to add some to the width for quilting and squaring. Sew one strip to each side.
- Measure the horizontal center of the quilt to get the length for the top and bottom pieced border. Cut two strips to that length and of the same width as the side borders. Sew one strip to the top and the other to the bottom.
6. Quilt as desired.
I confess to being a chicken when it comes to the actual quilting and when I want a professional look, I send it to a professional. Fortunately we have quite a few good long arm quilters locally. To keep the two versions of the quilt as different as possible, I sent each one to a different quilter. I sent this one to Barbara Angerhoffer, who has quilted a number of my quilts. She used a stipple pattern in black around the appliquéd blocks and a vining leaf design in green on the borders.
7. Create a label.
My favorite font for creating quilt labels is Adine Script, which is available as a BX font for convenient use. You are creating an heirloom so let those who come in the future know who created it and when!
8. Add a hanging sleeve if desired.
9. Bind.
I prefer to stitch my binding to the front of my quilt, fold to the back and then hand stitch.
I find this relaxing but feel free to use your own favorite technique.
Summary
Quilts don’t have to be massive. Smaller wall-hanging sizes like this one are more easily completed before the boredom or overwhelm sets in. Obviously this is not a one day or even a weekend project even though it is considerably less involved than the U.S. version. Set aside planning time to choose fabrics that you love and will work well together. Don’t rush, enjoy the process!
It’s a Wrap!
One thing I love about this hobby is that there’s always something new to learn, some new technique, some new gadget. Discovering those things is what keeps the hobby new, fresh, and interesting. Plus, embroidery is just more fun when you know the tricks to getting good results!