Raindrops On Flowers

Thistle, Daffodil, Flax, Rose - Flowers Quilt Pattern

 

Purchase Stained Glass Flower Patterns

 

Old stained-glass window panes set in stone-grey abbey walls bordered with red tapestries were the inspiration for my Flowers Of The United Kingdom wall hanging.  That was the original name because the flowers are the Scottish Thistle, the Welsh Daffodil, the Irish Flax and the English Rose.  I started working on this wall hanging with the Scottish Thistle in February of 2013 and slowly worked my way through the other three blocks.  The flower quilt patterns took me some time to draw exactly the way I envisioned them.

 

 

Welsh Daffodil paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase Welsh Daffodil Pattern

 

Welsh Daffodil was the hardest one for me to design but the easiest to stitch. I wanted a symmetrical design for these blocks and this little flower put up a good fight. This design went through a few iterations before I fell in love with this one.

 

 

Scottish Thistle Paper Piecing Quilt Pattern

 

Purchase Scottish Thistle Pattern

 

Having visited Scotland twice very extensively and having fallen in love with it, I really wanted to make a thistle quilt block. This wild flower instigated the idea of a wall hanging in my mind. Unlike the daffodil, I knew exactly how I wanted to draw this one. Because of the nature of the thistle flower having a lot of corners, this one is the most complex of the four designs.

 

 

flax_bag_front

 

 

Flax for Ireland was the next one I worked on.  I didn’t want a to make a shamrock for Ireland.  After asking a couple of friends and looking up reference material, I came up with Flax.  This flower was the easiest to draw.  You probably already saw this one where I used this block for the first tote bag I ever made.  I removed the yellow parts in between the petals from the original design since that was causing the block to have too many points to line up when stitching the two sections together.  I wasn’t ready to give up on the original design yet, so I used this extra block for the tote bag and went back to my drawing board.

 

 

Irish Flax paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase Irish Flax Pattern

 

I ended up redesigning the block using Y-seam even though I didn’t know how to stitch Y-seam before I worked on this block. I looked up how to stitch Y-seam and trusted my ability to draw a pattern without ever having sewn using that technique before. Y-seam is really not as hard as I thought it would be and it worked out exactly as I envisioned. I couldn’t be happier with the result.

 

 

English Rose paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase English Rose Pattern

 

Last but not least came the English Rose because I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to draw it. The daffodil was a little easier to draw because of its limited number of petals, whereas I had to work with the shape of the rose. I like what I have here, it was easy to sew and I love the little gingham fabric I used for this one. It was a lucky find!

 

 

Thistle, Daffodil, Flax, Rose - Flowers Quilt Patterns

 

Purchase Stained Glass Flower Patterns

 

As you can tell, they all share some design elements.  I also added some extra details on each side of the flowers, but they can easily be substituted with a single piece of fabric for simplicity.  Each central flower block is 6.5″ x 8.5″ with seam allowance and the overall block measures 10″ x 10″.  Some of you may remember my showing these finished blocks last year.  Then I got stuck at how to quilt this wall hanging and it sat unattended in the cupboard until very recently.

 

 

Daffodil Quilt Pattern

 

 

One day I was reading in the living room and it started raining outside.  As I saw the the raindrops falling and splashing, I had my quilting motif.  I drew a set of 0.5″-spaced concentric circles and cut them out with my small rotary cutter.  I used them as templates to draw out every single circle before I started quilting them.

 

 

Circle Quilting

 

 

Once I finished quilting the wall hanging, the name Raindrops On Flowers sounded so much better.

 

 

Thistle, Daffodil, Flax, Rose - Flowers Quilt Pattern

 

 

I took my time with every single part of this project until it felt right to me and I am so happy that I did.  I have never hung any picture over our bed because we live in California and I am afraid that it might fall and injure us during an earthquake.   After experiencing an M6 earthquake in August, I was very happy about my decision.  That very day of the earthquake I had finished painting our bedroom a shade of light buttery-yellow and a mossy green accent colour on the bed-wall.   Now I have the perfect wall hanging for that wall.

 

As my friend Susie said so aptly shortly after the earthquake, “I can’t help but think that this quilt that you are finishing, reminds me of nature and beauty… with earthquake shocks moving through them…”

 

Happy Sewing,
-Soma

 

 

23 thoughts on “Raindrops On Flowers

  • Sew Cute Tuesday | Blossom Heart Quilts April 13, 2015 at 12:04

    […] Soma shared this beautiful tulip miniquilt – the circular quilting is just perfection! […]

    Reply
  • Renee April 7, 2015 at 13:34

    These are just lovely! Stained glass quilts are so pretty.

    Reply
  • Claire November 14, 2014 at 18:02

    Your wall hanging is lovely, from the design, to color choice, to quilting. My default is to outline figures. I’ll hav to change that–the circles (raindrops) are very effective.

    Reply
  • M-R @ Quilt Matters November 14, 2014 at 17:04

    Whoa, Soma, it is gorgeous! Wow! Your attention to detail is fantastic, right down to the choice of quilting motif. Congrats!

    Reply
  • Jen November 14, 2014 at 09:18

    Beautiful quilt! The flower patterns are lovely, and the quilting takes it to another level. Well done!

    Reply
  • Alyce {Blossom Heart Quilts} November 12, 2014 at 16:00

    Soma! This is beautiful!!

    Reply
  • Annett November 12, 2014 at 15:56

    It looks so great.. the differences between quilted/unquilted piece are always surprising!

    Reply
  • Karen Miller November 11, 2014 at 20:23

    Soma this is just lovely — thanks for sharing the details on it and congrats on your new pattern. I love it!

    Reply
  • Janine November 10, 2014 at 05:59

    This has turned out beautifully. I love your circular quilting :)

    Reply
  • Cheryl November 9, 2014 at 16:55

    Stunning as always! I love the flowers and the quilting gives such dimension to the quilt.

    Reply
  • Brandy November 7, 2014 at 11:17

    What a great idea Soma, I love the raindrop look! And the stained glass look as well. I like the idea of a wall hanging over the bed too, we don’t get earthquakes in Walla Walla but my husband grew up in Northern California and so is still concerned about the idea of things falling on us. Mmm, that quilting, I am going to have to use that on something!

    ~Brandy

    Reply
  • DebV November 7, 2014 at 05:07

    Beautiful. Made me think of a pastel stained glass.

    Reply
  • lin November 6, 2014 at 23:50

    What a beautiful hanging. The flower motifs are simple and elegant and the ‘stone’ setting works really well. The quilting complements the design perfectly. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  • Kathleen November 6, 2014 at 22:12

    Your time and patience has paid off in this beautiful wall hanging. Love it.

    Reply
  • Mary November 6, 2014 at 17:22

    It is really beautiful. I love every part of it. Now if it falls in an earthquake you will be under a lovely quilt.

    Reply
  • Maria November 6, 2014 at 14:11

    The Wallhanging looks wonderful, Soma. The circular quilting is just so perfect and being inspired by the rain was just so serendipitous ! I love how your friend Susan ‘saw’ the earthquake shocks. I ‘see’ reflections of the flowers in a pool of water after an insect or stone has made the ripples on the surface. Absolutely beautiful!

    Reply
  • Lori Smanski November 6, 2014 at 13:05

    this is such a pretty wall hanging. It will look lovely against your buttery yellow wall. And I agree with your friend about the movement of thread.

    Reply
  • Susan November 6, 2014 at 12:22

    It’s a very lovely and soothing quilt.

    Reply
  • Susan the farm quilter November 6, 2014 at 12:14

    This quilt is so lovely! Your flowers are all so beautiful and the quilting really enhances the whole thing!!! Total score!!!

    Reply
  • Mdm Samm November 6, 2014 at 11:28

    with the coloured threads Soma…it is striking..really authentic like only you can do

    Reply
  • krislovesfabric November 6, 2014 at 10:47

    Nice finishing touch, it really is beautiful. Good thought not to have something heavy to fall upon you if another quake comes visiting…sure hope you all will be spared that, though. We are thinking along similar lines again, I am quilting circles into my next quilt though for a much different look, I think. Hopefully it will work as I envision it.

    Reply
  • Susie November 6, 2014 at 10:39

    Simply stunning!! I love your flower pattens. This really does look like an abbey stained glass window with raindrops! I think your quilting brings it to life…

    Reply
  • Shari November 6, 2014 at 10:08

    Wow! This is really beautiful. I just love the quilting too! Awesome work Soma!

    Reply
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