Flower Tile Quilt Using Scrap Fabric from My “Just for You” Sewing Book
Years ago I wrote a sewing book with my friend Caroline from Sew Can She. We called it "Just For You" and it was full of great projects you can make when you are looking for a little 'selfish sewing'. To commemorate that experience I made a scrap fabric quilt to use up some of the leftover fabric. I used the Flower Tiles Pattern by Then Came June. I just love how it turned out!
The Inspiration Behind This Flower Tile Quilt
I sewed this quilt top up a few years ago and just finished the binding on it this month. This quilt was inspired by my sewing book adventures. Writing a sewing book is a huge process that takes a lot of months to complete. There were fabric decisions to be made, projects to be considered, as well as a lot of communication with the other designers in the book.
It felt BIG and so I wanted to have a memory from it to hold onto. Plus, I couldn't let the extra fabric go to waste. Some of our Quilting fabric for the book was donated to us by Art Gallery Fabrics and some from Free Spirit Fabrics and I am forever grateful to them and the other companies that helped to sponsor our book.
More about 'Just For You'
Our "Just for You" book is full of projects that use all types of different fabrics from knit, to chiffon, lace, and a lot of quilting cotton. You can read more about it and find all kinds of posts featuring the projects in my JUST FOR YOU POST. There are clothes, bags, and accessories too! Take a look at this collage of some of the projects and you will recognize a few of the fabrics I used in this quilt.
How I Made the Flower Tile Quilt
Choosing a Quilt Pattern
The first step to any quilt is choosing a pattern. This can be a tricky task with so many amazing quilting patterns out there to choose from. I like to bookmark favorite quilts as I scroll through Instagram. For this quilt I chose a pattern from Then Came June. She has so many quilts I love. I chose the Flower Tile Quilt pattern because it has a modern aesthetic and I thought it would be perfect for showing off all the different fabrics I had. AND it looked pretty easy. Sometimes I just need easy!
Using Bold Prints for this Pattern
I thought this pattern would be perfect, but there was one problem. As I looked online at all the quilts other people had made from this pattern, I couldn't really find any that used dominant prints for the flowers like I wanted to.
Without an example to follow I had to figure out color placement on my own. The original quilt uses solid fabrics and the colors repeat very nicely in the centers of other flowers. I needed the colors to repeat somehow but I thought that repeating the prints in the centers would make it look too busy instead of fresh and modern. I trialed that out and tried adding in some solids I had on hand. I did not like the look of it at all so I kept brainstorming.
Every Color Needs a Friend
Another problem was that I was working with fabrics that hadn't been originally designed to go together. I had to find a way to make this quilt look cohesive and I didn't want to repeat any of the prints. To accomplish this, I made sure to use the prints that had similar colors or a color in the print that matched another flower color. For example, the bold 3D multicolor cube print has a red in it that matches the red domino print. In fact, that 3D cube print has most of the colors in the quilt so it really helped tie it all together. As my mom would say, "every color needs a friend." Repeating colors is the key to making a quilt look cohesive. Using any color works as long as your repeat it somewhere.
Choosing the Flower Centers
I decided to use the same center color for each flower to help tie it together and break up the the busyness of the prints. I chose to use an Essex Yarn Dyed in Indigo by Robert Kaufman that looks like a denim, which reads as a neutral. Just like a pair of jeans, it looks so good with EVERY color. We also used this fabric in the book for an apron designed by Maureen Cracknell.
Arranging the Flower Tile Blocks
I arranged the flower blocks making sure to try to spread out the colors evenly. I like to squint my eyes to find the boldest values and make sure they are separated as well.
Piecing the Flower Tile Blocks
Making the blocks was quick and I was able to easily chain piece them together. You sew a small square to one corner and large square to the other. Then you trim off the extra seam allowance leaving two sizes of half square triangles just begging to be sewed up and used. This is where you get all the little blocks for the bonus baby quilt.
Quilting the Quilt
I took this quilt with me a couple years ago to my Aunts house in St. George UT. She owns a long arm machine and she quilted it for me. I don't know that the pattern is called but I love how it turned out. It has pretty hibiscus looking flower shapes and meandering leaves. This is the first quilt I've ever had long armed I think. The texture that the all-over stitching makes is so amazing!
Finishing the Binding
I chose to repeat the Essex fabric for the binding but I didn't quite have enough. Luckily I had some similar striped chambray fabric that matched and so I integrated some of that to get the binding length I needed.
Check out my How to Bind a Quilt tutorial if you want to see my go to method for sewing on binding.
Overall, I love how it turned out. The push that finally made me finish this quilt was the fact that I needed a cute backdrop for the Super Simple Tote Bag video that I was filming.
Creating a HST Baby Quilt from the Scraps
I was excited to sew up a little HST (Half Square Triangle) quilt with the leftover fabric. There are instructions in the pattern to use all the cut off corners to sew into Half Square Triangles and make a small baby quilt. My sister in law was having a baby soon so I decided to sew it up for her.
I wanted it to be a little bigger though so I re-designed it to add a few more blocks I made small nine patch HST blocks from the smaller triangles cut from the flower centers.
Here's a peed at the finished quilt! HST quilts are maybe my favorite style of quilt. I've made a few of them in the past! CLICK HERE TO SEE!
Why I Love Sewing with Scraps.
I just LOVE sewing up a scrap fabric quilt so I found making the second quilt a bit more fun than making the first. I want to be creative when I sew and I think that sewing with scraps scratches that creative itch just a little more than following a pattern. There is something so satisfying about making something out of nothing. Here are a few more scrap fabric quilts I've made:
Final Thoughts on This Flower Tile Quilt Project
I absolutely love having a quilt that reminds me of the book that I helped write. That was a busy season in my life. We finished up the book when I was pregnant with my 5th child. We got to present it in a School House at Quilt Market in Houson that fall. It was really really fun because we did a little fashion show and recruited a bunch of quilty friends to come walk the runway and show off each of the projects in the book.
So what do you think? Have you made the Flower tile Quilt pattern before? Would you make it? Let me know in the comments below. It is definitely perfect for beginners. I highly recommend giving it a try!
Happy Quilting!
