We’ve reached the 83rd BOW flower block, and this week’s flower is a real woodland favorite - the beautiful Trillium!
With its graceful three-petaled flower and trio of leaves, Trillium makes a lovely addition to our growing collection of flower blocks. And, as you might expect from its name, “Trillium” comes from the idea of “three”. The flower, leaves, and sepals all appear in threes. Even the seedpod is divided into three sections!
A little Trillium fun
Here’s a fun fact to share while you stitch: Trilliums are spring ephemerals, meaning they emerge, bloom, and soak up the spring sunshine before the forest canopy fills in. White Trillium can take around 7-10 years to grow large enough to flower, so these delicate little woodland flowers are definitely worth admiring rather than picking!
Choose your favorite way to stitch
One of the things I love doing lately is to write my block patterns to give you several ways to make your flower your own. The instructions include:
- Machine applique - my personal go-to method!
- Hand applique for those who enjoy a slower, more traditional approach
- Free-form embroidery, either by hand or machine
- Quilting to add even more texture and detail
One of the things I love about fusible machine applique is that you can create beautifully crisp, pointed leaves and petals when you need them - just like the delicate points on the Trillium leaves.
The leaves on this particular flower have lots of detail, and I’ve captured those delicate lines with stitching. For my block, I used quilting to create the detail using various shades of green thread, but you could just as easily use embroidery, either by hand or machine. And if stitching all those lines feels a little too tricky, there’s an even simpler option - draw the lines with fabric pens.
You can choose one technique or mix and match to create a flower that reflects your own style. That’s one of the joys - you can follow the pattern, experiment with techniques, and make each block uniquely yours.
So, gather your favorite fabrics and threads and get ready to add this lovely Trillium to your collection. Block 83 is ready to bloom, grab the pattern here: Trillium Flower Block
Happy stitching!
