Vintage Blossom Quilt Tutorial

with
Jenny Doan

Vintage Blossom Quilt Tutorial

Quilt Size: 70" x 84"
Time: 15 minutes
During the 1920s, the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt pattern took the quilting world by storm! No one could resist those charming little hexagons, but they sure were tricky to put together! Some quilters used English paper piecing; some used y-seams. But no matter the technique, this pattern required yards and yards of time and patience! This week, Jenny is working on a quick and easy version using our half hexi template.
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video transcript

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I have such a fun project for you today. I’m really excited about this. Take a look at this quilt. Isn’t this fun? These are the traditional grandmother’s flower garden blocks. And I want to show you the traditional old quilt. This is one of the old ones from my collection I have. I am a quilt rescuer. I find them in antique stores and I bring them home. And this, this pattern happens to be one of my favorites. And I love that we now have a super easy way to do this. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is one packet of ten inch squares. And we have used Aunt Grace’s Flower Pots by Judy Rothermill for Marcus Fabrics. Now the key on this is that because we’re using this hexagon you can actually use any pre cut that’s out there. You could use a charm pack which are the five inch squares. Or you could use a pack of 2 ½ inch strips and you’re still going to be able to make this. So this is super versatile. But when we got this packet of the 30’s fabrics, you know, a reprint of the 30’s fabrics, even though it was a layer cake, I still had to do it. So, so really it can be made with any of them. You’re going to need some background fabric. And we used a roll of 2 ½ inch strips. That’s going to take care of this first border right here, all your sashings and all your pieces that frame your little blocks. You’re going to need some border fabric. For the border you’re going to need a yard and a half out here. And this is a nice six inch border. And your backing, take a look at your backing. Isn’t that pretty? I just love 30’s prints. They’re just so happy to me. They’re just very happy. You’re going to need 5 ¼ yards for that backing. So let me show you how to do this because this is really fun.

Now with our template, you’re going to need this little half hexi template. It’s a five inch half hexi and again it will fit on any of the pre cuts. But to make this, what I did was I chose, I chose my squares like this. I went through and I got a bunch and I layered them up just like this. And I’m going to cut several at a time so let me get a bright pink one in here. And now what I’m going to do is I’m going to move this over here. This is the block we’re going for. It goes together in strips and rows. We put these together in rows like this and so let me show you how to do this.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to cut this into four five inch squares. And you don’t actually have to do that but that’s how we did it for the sake of the pattern. And that’s how my brain works so that’s what we’re going to do right here. So I did four five inch squares like this. And then what I’m going to do is I’m going to fold this in half and I’m going to take my little template and put it on there and I’m going to go ahead and cut and cut and then I’m going to open this up and use my straight edge and just cut it right in half. Now depending upon how you lay it that line could already be cut in half. So here’s our two pieces and you can see how when we’re going to put them together, you’re going to have to lay it out because it’s got to make a flower at the end of the day. So let me cut a few more of these. And I’m just going to go ahead and do it this way. So I’m laying my, my piece on here like this. And this, because with this template is made for the pre cuts, there’s very little waste. Alright now we’re going to go here. I’m going to go ahead and cut this off too. Alright you’re going to need seven different hexis for this. And remember you need two of each. So let me show you how to lay this out now because this is really cool.

Alright we’re going to start with the top of our flower right here. And then we’re going to put the next row in and I always, I always have to match mine up as I go along. So here’s my first little blossom. And then these are going to go like this along this side. And I’m going to save this one for the next row. And then this one is going to come over here. I have to make sure that my colors are right you know. Now this red is going to go down here in the middle. And then this is the next step down here. And then we’re going to put another piece over here. See how this is coming together? Can you see the flower? It’s so fun. Alright here’s one more over here. And then we’ve got this guy down here. Now this is really fun. Take a look at your flower. If you love it, that’s great. If you don’t, like say if want like more of a yellow center you can move this one in the middle and then you could put this one over here like this. And just switch them around until it looks good to you. You’re the designer. It’s your eye and fix it so it looks good. But you can see it’s not a square. And so we have to make it a square. Now to do that what I’ve done here is I’ve taken a background half hexi and just cut it right in half. And that I’m going to add to these sides right here. So I’m going to put these on here. So the straight line is on the outside. And these are going to go like this on both sides just like this. Now if you use this white then you know that you can use either side. So, so you don’t have to worry about, you know, which side goes where. Except for me, I’m angley challenged so I’ve got to turn it three or four times before I sew it on there. Alright so we get this one here. And then this one. Alright these are a little bit longer. So what we’re going to do for this, this is a six inch strip. And let me show you how I do that. Let’s see if I can move this all up here together. Oh I did pretty good.

Alright so on this strip right here what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut a six inch piece. I’m going to start by cutting my little selvedge ends off like this. Then I’m going to cut a six inch by 2 ½, six by 2 ½ just like this. And then what I’m going to do is I’m going to bring the end of my hexi tool right over here. Oop let me get this off. There we go. And I’m going to lay it on here so it goes all the way to the edge but this is the angle I’m looking for right here. So I’m going to lay this on here. And I’m going to get this angle. And you’re going to need two for the top and two for the bottom. So these are going to go in here like this. And these are going to go in here like this. Now they look a little short but when you take all those seams they’ll be the same size. So let’s cut two more of those. Again it’s six by 2 ½ and then we’re going to use this at the end and cut our angle. And then these we’re just going to put in exactly the same way. So like this and like that. And then you have a block. Now I have some of these that are already sewn together so I’m going to move this out of the way. And I’m going to show you this one. And you and I are going to sew a row together.

So here’s my pieces. This is the bottom half and this is the top half. And you can see once you take all those seams in there it fits. But now we have to do this row in here. And this will show you how it goes together just in a row. So I’m going to put these two together. Again I’m matching those two. And then this one gets turned and we’re going to slide it in here like this. So again we have to have our little end pieces on here. So I have this one going this way and this one going this way. So let’s go ahead and sew this row together so you can see how that’s done. Now right here we’re going to turn our, our little pieces and we’re going to put them together. They don’t actually square up on the lines so I just put them kind of corner to corner. And we’re going to sew a quarter of an inch on these pieces so that they’ll line up so nice. There we go. I kind of took off like a shot. And then I’m going to grab these other two pieces over here. And I’m going to go ahead and trim this. I mean cut my thread, lay it open and lay my next piece in. And I’m going to look to make sure I grab the right one. And again we’re just going to put this right sides together, kind of match up your corners like that. And I’m going to sew down here a quarter of an inch. Cut it, cut your thread, open it up. See how this is coming together. And then we’re going to turn this one this way and slide it under here. Make sure it stays lined up and go ahead and sew a quarter of an inch, trim. And now we have to just add our last little outside piece. And you can’t get it wrong. I mean, there’s no way, I mean, you couldn’t put it on the wrong way. So you just see how it goes and then put that on there. And, there we go. Alright now we’re going to press this back. And we’ve got a nice hot iron over here. And I’m just going to go ahead and press from the top. Now I want to show you something right here. So see right here how this is a little bit off. This one is going to be a little too off for me. Usually I don’t worry about it. See this one right here. You can catch that in the quarter inch seam and it’s not going to matter. If they’re a little too off, just go ahead and take it out. And I going to go ahead and just pull this thread and take this out and just sew that over. There’s no harm in doing that. And it’s a short little seam so it comes off of there pretty easily. And I’m going to try to match it up a little bit better this time. Let me press this flat. And make sure I get it. That’s kind of one of those mistakes where if you can hide that in your quarter inch seam you are good to go. But if you look at it, and it’s just like, you know that’s going to be too close, you want to do it again. So I’m going to go ahead and put this, do the quarter of an inch, cut my thread and open it up. Oh, we made it that time.

Alright, so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to lay this up here and make sure it fits in here just perfect and then we’re going to sew our block together. So when I do this, when I put these together I’m looking at where my blocks come together to line up. So right here this first, this first little block, make sure your edges line up because that’s going to be important. Because that makes your whole hexagon right there. Alright now what we’re going to do is add the other part. And we’re going to have a whole block finished. Alrighty. So now we make sure this matches up right here. We’re going to put this right on top of this and we’re going to match this up. Alright so start at your edge right there, come on down the side. We’re still at our quarter of an inch. We’re still making sure these line up. And we’re on the home stretch. And now we’re going to press this open. Alright, this came out really nice.

So now what we’re going to do is we’re going to square our block up to 12 ½. So we’re going to look at our board right here. And you can see we have little bits of, you know, where it’s not exactly perfect but that’s going to be just completely cleared up when we square it up. So we’re going to count here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. So we have a little bit of room to work with. And I’m going to just straighten out this one edge over here like this. And this is exactly on my one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. And now we’re coming in here to a half. Now if it looks like you’re taking too much off of one side then just take a little bit less and take a little more on your other side. So it’s a good thing to just, you know, just kind of make it work. See mine is a little bit more. Now I’m going to set this at 12 ½ and see I can just shave this just a little bit. Now if you have a 12 ½ inch ruler that would be perfect. Set it on top of there and, and just trim around it. And then we have our cute little flower block.

So now all you’ve got to do is you’re going to sash these. Let’s take a look at the quilt. We’ve sashed them. So your block is 12 ½, your sashing is going to be 12 ½. We’re going to set that right in between the blocks. And then this is our sashing row. And it’s going to go in with a 12 ½ and a 2 ½ inch cornerstone. And a 12 ½. So I have a few of those cut out. Let me show you. So here we go with our blocks. And I’ve got some of these cut. We’re going to put a sashing in between each one. And a sashing is just kind of a setting strip in the, in the, when you set the quilt together, just like this. And you’ll have another one. And you do that to your row. Now we have one, two, three, four, across and one, two, three, four, five, down. So 20 blocks is what we’re making. And here’s our little row for in between . I know I have one, hang on. Here we go, right here. So this one right here you can see I’ve put a little 2 ½ inch block. And this helps me when I put them together. And it helps me because I’m not very good at lining up my blocks, row by row. But if I have a cornerstone in there, then I can match it and it comes right together that way. So once you get your, your flowers all done you’re going to add your little 2 ½ inch border on the outside and your six inch border on the end. And you too can have a Vintage Blossom quilt. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the MSQC.

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