‘oval’ in the design. Slip the lower
end of each of these stems under the
first two short stems. Continue in this
manner, basting lengths of bias tape
to cover all the lines of the design.12
Once all the tape has been glue
basted in place, appliqué the
vines to the fabric. Lyn stitched by
hand, but you could also work
straight stitch, blanket stitch or blind
hem stitch by machine if you prefer.
Flowers13
Trace the flower printed on the
Pattern Sheet onto the paper
side of the fusible web 52 times,
leaving about^11 ⁄ 2 in between shapes.
Cut the shapes out roughly.14
Fuse them to the leftover tone-
on-tone print fabrics – 10 or 11
flowers per fabric. Cut the shapes out
accurately on the lines. Peel the
paper from the back of the flowers,
and lay them on your background
fabric so they cover the end of the
bias-tape stems. When you are happy
with the arrangement of shapes and
the distribution of colours, use a hot
iron to fuse them in place.15
Appliqué the flowers in place
around the raw edges of each
shape. Lyn blanket stitched by
machine using threads to match
the appliqué fabrics.16
Trace the circle for the fl ower
centre onto paper several times.
Cut the shapes out roughly. Glue them
to cardboard, and then cut them out
accurately on the traced lines. (These
templates may become distorted after
repeated uses, so it’s easiest to make
several at once so that you can discard
one when it becomes unusable andcontinue with one of these others that
you’ve prepared.)17
Trace around these templates
on the wrong side of the black
with white spot print fabric and the
white with black spot print fabric.
You need to trace 26 circles on each
of these two fabrics. Leave about^3 ⁄ 4 in
between the shapes as you trace.18
Cut each circle out of fabric(^3) ⁄ 8 in by eye outside the traced
line. Sew a line of running stitch
around the circle about^1 ⁄ 8 in from the
edge leaving long thread tails at the
beginning and end. Place a cardboard
template in the centre of the circle on
the wrong side and pull up the thread
to gather the seam allowance over to
the back evenly and firmly, as shown
in Diagram 2. Press the shape well on
both sides. Carefully remove the
stitches and the template and press
again. Repeat this process to prepare
all 52 flower centres.
19
See Lyn’s Flower Centre Tip
before proceeding and decide
whether you wish to appliqué the
flower centres in place now or after
the quilt has been quilted. When
you’re ready to appliqué the flower
centres, glue baste one in the middle
of each appliquéd fl ower – black
fl ower centres for the fl owers on the
white background fabric and white
fl ower centres for the fl owers on the
black background fabric – then stitch
them in place.
Assembly
20
Lay out the Square in a Square
blocks in three columns of fi ve
blocks each, alternating blocks with
black outer borders with those with
white outer borders. Lyn started the
centre column of blocks with a white-
bordered block and the left and right
columns with a black-bordered block.
21
When you have an array of
blocks that you like, sew the
blocks in each column together. Press.
Your columns should measure 20^1 ⁄ 2 x
1001 ⁄ 2 in. A little variation from this is
fi ne: what’s important is that all three
columns are the same length. If
they’re not, re-sew some seams.
22
Trim the two border strips –
one solid black and one solid
white – to the same length as your
columns. Do the same to trim the two
appliquéd columns, trimming them at
the top of the strip, not the bottom.
23
Lay out the columns of blocks,
the appliquéd vines and the
border strips, referring to the photo
of Lyn’s quilt as a guide. Sew the
columns together. Press.
Finishing
24
The quilt top, backing and
batting are ready to take to a
long-arm quilter as they are. If you’re
Flower detail Diagram 2
LYN’S FLOWER
CENTRE TIP
I chose not to appliqué the centres
to my flowers until after the quilt
had been quilted. This meant that
the centres sat a little above the
surrounding flower petals, giving
them subtle dimension.
36 Homespun