Bountiful Bouquet–It’s Done!

Oh finally, I hear you roar.

Believe me when I say I have not enjoyed this final step.  I have learned a very important lesson when offering a quilt on a quilting blog, do it all 100% before you even talk about posting it online.  It’s what I did with Calm Blue Ocean and that was seamless. 

Bountiful Bouquet, not so much.

But here she is.  I’m really pleased with the way the outer border looks.  If you’ve got very good eyes, you can see that some flowers are not in place – they fell off when I put the quilt on the design wall.  Are you hating Vliesofix as much as me at the moment?

For this step, we will need that big amount of cream fabric that I made you get in the first step.

I’ve cut my borders in one long piece however if you are being a little more frugal than me, just go ahead and join your lengths.  It’s totally up to you.

At the end of step nine, your quilt should have measured 60.5” x 45.5” once you sewed those smaller borders on.

From cream fabric, cut two (2) 9” x 60.5” borders and two (2) 9” x 62.5” borders.

BUT REMEMBER, ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE AND CUT ONCE!

Stitch a 60.5” border to either long side of quilt and press.

Stitch a 62.5” border to top and bottom of quilt and press.

Your finished quilt should now measure 77.5” x 62.5”.

Give your quilt a really good press.  Make a big cup of your chosen beverage and set aside some time to draw and cut, because this will take a while!

Click on link and download all six pages of your diagrams.

Have a good look at my quilt picture above.  I have made four basket of flowers, which I have centred in the corners of my quilt.  From each basket, there are two vines filled with flowers, a total of eight vines altogether.  Each vine is very much the same as each other.  Can you see that?

I decided not to draw the whole vine length because it would just have been reams and reams of paper for you to print and stick together. 

Now this step is entirely up to you.  It’s your quilt, it’s your flower garden, you do as you wish.  But if you want to copy mine, this is what I did. 

From vliesofix, trace the following:

Baskets – Trace Four

Centre Flowers – Trace Four in two different colour ways

Long Windy Stems – Trace Eight of one, and Eight of the other (their bendy bits face different directions, eight go one way, eight go the other)

Short Bendy Stems – Trace Eight of one, and Eight of the other (as with above, eight face one direction, eight face the other)

Small Stubby Stems – Trace Thirty Two

Leaves – Trace approximately 100

For all the foliage (leaves and stems) I used the same green. 

Four Petalled Flower – Trace Eight

Five Petalled Flower – Trace Eight

Large Violet – Trace Eight

Small Violet – Trace Eight

Daffodil – Trace Eight

Large Daisy – Trace Eight

Small Daisy – Trace Sixteen

Large Pansy – Trace Eight

Flower A – Trace Eight

Flower B – Trace Eight

Iron these onto colours of your choosing and cut them out.

Now, I found it most easiest to pick a corner, work with that and get it right, and then copy that corner all the way around.  WE DO NOT PRESS OUR FLOWERS IN PLACE UNTIL WE ARE TOTALLY HAPPY WITH THEIR SET OUT.

As most ironing boards aren’t the right size (when will they invent a huge rectangle one just for quilters?), I found I had to do this step in two stages.

Lay down your basket on the outer edge of the quilt.

Place the long windy stems in place, and where they will roughly join up, cover them with the large daisy flower.

Lay down the short bendy stems in place.

Lay down the small stubby stems in place.

Lay your assorted flowers in the right area, covering the end of the stems.  You’ll soon discover if you like their placement or not.  Just move them around till you’re happy with them.

Tuck the leaves under in any places where joins are showing, or where you think that it needs it.  Copy my placement if you like. 

The leaves and the smallest daisies are excellent for covering up stuff-ups.  If you have a join that you don’t like, stick a daisy and leaf over it, and you would never know!

When you are happy with the placement, STILL DON’T IRON.

You need to tuck the long windy stems on the other side of the basket, so that when you iron the bits you have just placed on, the ends of the stems will be neatly tucked under the basket.

So – when you’re happy with everything, press the first part of your corner in place, being careful in the basket area not to press too far along the final stem, because we need to add stuff UNDER this one.

Now, you should have one of your windy stems facing the other direction of the basket.  Continue on adding bits and pieces as before, being sure that you place the pieces in (roughly) the same area as on the other side.

When you’re happy with your placement, iron in place.

Continue all the way around your quilt, making sure you copy your placement from the previous corner.  Ensure you don’t run over half way here:

When complete, and you’re totally happy, give your design a really good press.  I find if you just give it a lick and a promise when placing, you can lift and move things if they are in the wrong spot.  This is handy.  But after everything is perfect, a really good press will ensure that you don’t lose bits off your quilt, like I did when I hung mine.

When you’re happy, use your embroidery threads to blanket stitch all the way around.

When totally complete, quilt as desired, and bind using your usual method.

I can tell you, this baby won’t be quilted for ages.  There’s a lot of sewing there!

And that’s the end of Bountiful Bouquet.  I do hope you enjoyed it, I admit I had a lot to learn but that’s all good, don’t you think?  We can never stop learning!

Please email me with any questions you have.  And thanks again so much for participating!  Send me a photo when you’re done!

Download Diagrams for outer border from here

Download instructions for outer border from here