It’s a Garden Party Row-along!

Fellow Quilters,

Today is the first day of Fall, and a beautiful day here in my neck of the woods – clear blue skies, the leaves are starting to turn their bright orange/yellow, and the geese are beginning their flight south.  We haven’t had a frost yet so my garden still has basil and lots of colorful flowers.  Which brings me to the It’s a Garden Party Row-along!  Today is my day to post, along with 4 other designer bloggers.  If you’re popping over from another blog, a warm Welcome to you!  Please feel free to hit that subscribe button over on the right 😊.

This annual Row-along is organized by Marian at Seams to be Sew (thanks Marian!) and I have participated for several years.  The theme this year is gardens, and each of the 50 participating designers has created a “free-for-a-week-or-longer” row.  Here is the full schedule:

Tuesday, September 8 Blue Heron Quilting Carolyn Butterfield Made By Marney Pumpkin Patch BC  The Devoted Quilter	Thursday, September 10 Bobbin In Quilts KISSed Quilts Patchwork Breeze Songbird Designs Stitchin’ at Home
Tuesday, September 15 Daughters of Dorinda Elizabeth Coughlin Designs Just Let Me Quilt Lovingly Lissa The Quilt Rambler	Thursday, September 17 Fabric Bash/Carpe Blogum For the Love of Geese Kathleen McMusing Ms P Designs USA QuilterChic
Tuesday, September 22 Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design Patti’s Patchwork Quilt Schmilt Scrapdash Your Sewing Friend	Thursday, September 24 Charisma’s Corner Clever Chameleon Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio Kathy’s Kwilts and More Mountain Meadow Designs
Tuesday, September 29 Cynthia’s Creating Ark Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse Moose Stash Quilting Tuning My Heart Quilts Cheryl LaPlante	Thursday, October 1 Barbara Dieges Linda B Creative Orange Blossom Quilt Design Studio Ursa Minor Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting
Tuesday, October 6 Bumbleberry Stitches Charlie’s Daughter Seams To Be Sew The Quilting Room with Mel Words & Stitches	Thursday, October 8 Duck Creek Mountain Quilting Lynn’s Beauty Quilt Art Renee’s Quilting Addiction Sew Incredibly Crazy
Tuesday, October 13 Show and Tell Day Participating blogs to be announced

Not only does each designer have a free pattern, they also have a giveaway from one of our fantastic sponsors, so be sure to visit each site to download the garden-themed row pattern and enter the giveaway.

Most of the rows are applique-based.  If you know me and my quilts, you know I’m a piecer.  Sure, I’ll throw in a bit of applique and other techniques here and there, but I like my pieced blocks.  So naturally my row is pieced.  With a bit of applique 😊.  And some dimensional folds 😊. I wanted a vertical row, just to be different, so mine looks like a floral vine – maybe hollyhocks? I chose some gorgeous shades of coral and lilac from Northcott’s Artisan Spirit Shimmer for my flowers and a delicate shade of light blue Shimmer for the sky background.  I designed my row on my computer using the fabulous Electric Quilt EQ8 program, inserting the Shimmer fabrics and the digital quilt image looks identical to the real thing.  By the way, Electric Quilt is offering a 20% discount on all their products except EQ Academy for the duration of the Row-along when you enter the code GARDENPARTY20 (thanks Electric Quilt!).  Let’s take a look at how I made my row.

My row is made of 9 flower blocks, and each block has 2 halves.  The top half is pieced, with a twice-folded square inserted between the 2 colored triangles of the flying geese unit to add that touch of dimension.  What an easy way to add interest to the block!  To ensure I didn’t cut off the tips of my triangles when sewing the triangle pieces together, I made sure that my pieces crossed at the ¼” seam line.  Success!

The bottom half of each flower block is appliqued.  I could have pieced it, however I thought that appliquing that curve might be easier for me.  Not that I’m not up to the challenge of that super-curvy curve with sharp points at the end that disappear into the seam.  Well, maybe I’m not.  So here are a few tips to get a lovely smooth edge to that appliqued curve.

#1 – I stitch 1/8” from the curved edge with a longer stitch length, leaving a nice long thread tail on each end.

#2 – I cut a piece of heat-resistant template material the shape of my curved piece without the seam allowance on the curved edge and used it as a guide for pressing the curved edge of my pieces.  With the patch face down, I inserted the template and gently pulled up the thread tails to gather the seam allowance around the template, then pressed them in place.

#3 – Then I chain-pieced those curved pieces onto background pieces with an 1/8” seam to hold them in place before sewing them to the pieced top half of each block.  Note that I haven’t stitched that curved edge down yet.

#4 – When I sewed the blocks together, I checked that I didn’t accidentally catch my curved edges in any seams.

#5 – I wanted to add some leaves, and applique seemed easiest.  I layered my fabrics wrong sides together to get left- and right-curving leaves.  I used a plastic leaf template without seam allowances to get a nice smooth edge, clipping my seam allowance slightly on that inner curve.

#6 – I pinned the leaves on my row, tucking the ends under the flower appliqued pieces.  Once everything was where I wanted, I invisibly stitched the applique pieces in place.  I actually did this by hand because it was a beautiful warm day at the beginning of summer and I sat outside on my patio enjoying the weather and my June garden.  My perennial garden has different flowers in June than in September!

You can download the free pattern to my row here.  But wait!  There’s more!! Not only do you get a free pattern, you can also have a chance to win a gift certificate for $60 Cdn to be spent at www.pattispatchwork.com.  Simply leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite quilt-making technique.  The contest is open for 1 week.  The rules are posted over on Marian’s Seams to be Sew blog.

Enjoy the row-along and all the wonderful free row patterns!

Cheers,

Patti