This month's Block of the Week features the vibrant Gaillardia, more commonly known as Blanket Flower. With its daisy-like blooms and striking colors, Gaillardia is a wonderful choice for applique, bringing warmth and energy to any quilt. While the flowers are often seen in rich shades of red, orange, and yellow, fabric gives us the freedom to explore endless color combinations and create blooms that suit our own creative vision.
As with all of my flower blocks, I begin by studying the structure of the plant and simplifying it into applique shapes while still capturing its distinctive character. The petals have a lovely open form that radiates from the centre of the flower, while the leaves add movement and balance throughout the design.
One aspect of my design that often surprises people is how I draw the leaf templates. When drawing my applique templates, I design each leaf in its complete shape, even if part of it will eventually sit hidden behind another flower or leaf. This means the template itself remains a natural, fully formed leaf rather than having awkward missing sections cut away.
By working this way, you can easily take an individual stem, flower, or plant from the design and use it on its own in another project without ending up with strangely shaped leaves where overlapping pieces were originally intended.
This approach gives you much more flexibility when using the pattern. Perhaps you'd like to create a smaller wall hanging featuring just a single bloom, add a flower to a journal cover, or incorporate part of the design into a larger quilt. Because each element has been designed as a complete shape, it's easy to mix, match, and adapt the pattern to suit your own projects.
The Gaillardia block also provides plenty of opportunities to play with fabric selection as well as paint and embroidery. I used applique for the tips of the flower on my block but also give instructions on how to paint the tips in the pattern. There are also options for embroidery.
I hope you'll enjoy bringing this Blanket Flower to life... I find it exciting to see how different quilters interpret the same design, and I look forward to seeing the color combinations and creative touches you choose for your own Gaillardia block.
You'll find the pattern here: Gallardia (Blanket Flower) block
Happy stitching!
