So having never blog before and like all of us quilters never have enough UFP’s – yes I do have rather a lot, 2 wedding quilts to finish, quilt for hubby just need to quilt and bind, first granddaughters quilt and one for her mum but that’s okay I have until September!

So put my thoughts to designing a block for the Flower Garden, having spent some of lockdown working on our garden which has never looked so good, with lovely tubs of flowers and beautiful roses in the front garden thought I would get my sketch pad out.

I am no artist but quite liked the process of drawing my interpretation of my roses, tobacco plants and fuchsias. Then to colour well that I haven’t done for many years but found this very relaxing.

So having settled on the rose I initially thought a stain glass block but as its only 12 x 12 thought applique would be easier for the rose but really wanted to symbolize a garden so have added a border that I think looks like a trellis, can just imagine it will a climbing rose. So now all I had to do was transfer my drawing into a workable block, pattern, made up block and a blog. Sure I could fit all that in between two virtual courses on EPP and hexagons and my BOM again virtual plus those UFP’s I started to design.

Using EQ8 which I have only been using for the last year and rarely I worked out how to add my drawing, added a border and then printed out a first draft to draft up a sample.

Out came the light box to trace off each piece for the rose, looking through the stash for some suitable fabric to reflect the colours of the petals, leaves and stem. I have to say I really love applique but top tip number each piece so you know where it goes when trying to put it all back together again! I then used a very small satin stitch to go over the raw edges. I used Aurafil an a variegated pink thread from them for the rose and a olive colour for the leaves and stem.

Then on to the border – wanted this to make the rose pop and so went for bold plains representing a garden theme, so have made it a little like a trellis – though never seen a pink one. This is where it didn’t go so well, triangles sewn on the wrong side – 32 seams unpicked – nearly gave up. Then put border together to find too long for middle block – maths is obviously not my strong point. Hats off to those that design patterns for a living – gosh had to redo the maths twice to get it right.

However, after putting aside for a few days, out came the unpicker thankfully have a new Tula Pink seam ripper and it works a treat, border off, maths sorted and back to the machine and hey presto the block is complete. Have really enjoyed the process and a real learning curve as normally I figure it out as I go and don’t have to worry about others trying to follow my pattern. I hope if you give it a go you will enjoy making this rose block and I look forward to seeing all those beautiful colour roses.

As ever .. the pattern for this and all the lovely flower blocks in this event can be found here

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