One of my favorite quilting adventures is to create flowers in applique so over the next few weeks I'm going to be doing a series of applique flowers that I've created or am currently creating.
This week I'm starting with my Primula flower block - it was the second block in my BOW flower series and one I've often thought about making it again. I love the shape of this flower as it is very simplistic. I noticed some of these flowers have four petals, others have five. For my first block I used five for my templates simply because an odd number is more interesting to look at.
Primula
If you have been following me a while now, you will have noticed that I prefer to take my own photos when designing - two reasons: 1) With copyright issues being a big thing, it is best to provide my own inspiration, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes grab a copyright-free image, and.... 2) Taking my own photo means I can get the right angle, detail, closeup and anything else I need to make my composition unique and interesting to applique as well as look at.
I drew my templates for this block using the above photo as if looking directly down on it from above. I have three flowers using mauves and purple shades of fabric with two different greens for the leaves. Although primulas come in many different colors including red, orange, yellow, purple, white and pink with usually a yellow center, but also other light colors.
Fabrics for Primula block
The leaves are simple in shape and difficult to see in the photo and the petals are often bunched up and overlapping, but I have kept mine open to keep this flower block simplistic and easy to make.
Applique shapes cut out and attached to background
After the applique shapes are cut out and pressed on the background, it is time to select threads. I like to unravel the threads a little to see how they look on the fabric as a single thread rather than in the reel. It is much easier to match them this way.
Selecting threads
I used my soft-edge applique technique to stitch around all the raw edges twice, but you might like to hand stitch them instead. This block would work well for needle-turn applique just remember to add tiny seam allowances especially in between the petals.
The centers are stitched with a crisscross free motion. This could easily be exchanged for a seed bead or French knots.
I love the shape of this flower. It is so appealing and would make a wonderful quilting design too.... yes, I've used it a number of times including the quilt below.
You can purchase this block pattern along with my whole series of flower blocks here: BOW flower blocks
