While visiting my sister in Seattle a couple years ago, I found some awesome layer cakes on sale. I couldn’t resist, in fact we went to the store twice because I had to make sure I found everything I was looking for. One of the super cool cakes I got was Harpers Garden. Such soft, summer colors that make you think of flowers and summer relaxation, and lots of picnics and festivals.
I snagged it up and when I got home I started thinking of what kind of pattern I’d like to do with it. Flowers were an obvious pick, so I got on my computer program and started designing a flower with two contrasting colors and a matching light center for all the blocks to tie together. I decided to group them together by color; coral with coral, blue with blue, green with green.
I quickly cut fabric and pieced together the flowers. Then it came to the layout. One of the things I love about layer cakes is that they are already a variety of fabrics, making the scrappy look that’s so appealing on quilts. I wanted to make sure I had the colors well mixed, and then I added white sashing between the blocks. I used leftover fabric from the blocks to create the cornerstones on the sashing, and stepped back to look at the top. It looked like it was still missing something. Hmm…
I realized I really needed some borders to pull it all together. I found a solid navy in my stash to add a simple border, and then ordered some of the coral fabric for the second border.
While I was ordering fabric, I decided to also order more of the blue floral fabric for the backing. I’ve been trying to be good and use up fabric I have, but I couldn’t resist with this one. The blue floral is just SOOO pretty.
When it came to the quilting, I hummed and hawed a little. I knew I wanted something floral themed, but I wasn’t sure what. I settled on a meander circle floral look with leaves in the corners for each of the flower blocks. Then for the sashing and borders, I created a meander with leaves, almost like vines growing across the quilt.
For the binding, I used a bit more of the blue backing which creates a nice frame for the front of the quilt.
This was a very satisfying finish. It came together quickly, and definitely compliments the country home look in the summer.
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