They say that the best things are worth waiting for, and boy oh boy this has been a long time coming. This is not because it has taken a particularly long time to make, but because I just didn’t get around to finishing the ‘quilt sandwich’ after I had made the top.
This is the Folk Blooms Quilt and isn’t it just the most adorable quilt pattern you ever did see?! However there are a ton more beautiful and whimsical designs over on the Pen and Paper Patterns site here. I’m pretty sure that you will find it nigh on impossible to choose a favourite, they are all so charming.
It’s a traditionally pieced quilt pattern suitable for the advanced beginner and up, and the pattern instructions are superb. There is a lot of information packed into those instructions, but just read through it a couple of times before you start so that everything is clear in your head, and you’ll be fine.
As a confident sewist, but a beginner quilt maker, I decided to jump in and make this when the pattern was fairly new and Lindsey, the owner of Pen and Paper Patterns was running a ‘quilt along’. This is a fantastic way to feel fully supported if you were, like me, not confident in how to make a quilt. This all was happening back in Aug/Sept 2021 – you can now see how long it has taken me to get this finally finished! The quilt along split up the process of making the quilt into 8 (I think) weekly chunks, which worked so well for me. This made things very organised, doable and not overwhelming at all. It also gave me the momentum to keep working on this quilt frequently and regularly.
I’m not going to lie, the fabric strip cutting took AGES. Accuracy at this stage is crucial and you know the old rule of ‘measure twice, cut once’ – well that was very relevant with the cutting out so as not to make any errors. After a while though you do get into the swing of things and more confident, but it does feel good when that part is done and you can get onto the fun stuff. The pattern comes with printable paper labels so that you can keep your different ‘cuts’ in organised piles.
I also loved that you can print out a colouring page of the quilt design where you can play around with colours and see how they look together. For lots of inspiration regarding this pattern head on over to the Pen and Paper Pattern blog, and you will find some relevant posts if you scroll back to August/September 2021.
If you have an Instagram account be sure to check out the #folkbloomsquilt hashtag for more inspo.
Week by week the quilt top came together. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and how quickly it came together. I think if I hadn’t had the sew along to keep me motivated it would have been a much slower process. It’s just a shame that when I finished making it, I put it away thinking that ‘I will get around to getting it long-arm quilted’ fairly soon. It turns out that it took me a couple of years to actually do this …..and I eventually took it to a beautiful quilt shop not far from where I live ( The Bramble Patch) last Summer and they finished it off with their long arm quilting machine. The design that we chose was floral and I hope that you can see some of those beautiful stitching patterns from the images included here.
The finishing touches were to hand stitch the binding around the edge, and I made a quilt label just to be fancy.
What does everybody do with their little triangular offcuts? You will end up with a massive amount of these. I expect I will use them for stuffing, or attach them to iron on interfacing in a random manner and cut them up into strips to make as quilting strips for something else. Any other ideas?
The fabrics that I used were Riley Blake Confetti quilting cottons for the quilt top, and a sweet ditsy floral 100% cotton from Dunelm which I was delighted matched my top colours beautifully.
As I write this post, Lindsey has recently released another quilt pattern – The Best Buds – and she is holding another quilt along for this pattern too which starts on Feb 2nd I think, so if that is something that you might be interested in, the details are all over on her blog.
Hope you like this slightly different pattern review from me this time.
Take care and I’ll be back another time,
Kathy x
It’s beautifully made