Bedding Plants QAL – The Crocus Row

We have reached our final flower, the crocus!  If you have got this far in the Bedding Plants QAL then well done!

I am just back from a gruelling yet wonderful trip to Festival of Quilts where I was teaching, giving lectures, working on both the Handi Quilter and Aurifil stands, and hanging out with all the quilty pals I have missed seeing over the last 18 months. Consequently I do need to catch my breath a little and despite my best efforts to organise this QAL post ahead (I made the project and took the photos last week) I didn’t quite get the chance to finish writing this post. So this post might just seem a little bit shorter then the previous ones. This is also because I dealt with FPP in great detail in the Fan Flower post and you guys totally smashed it, so I know you can manage these little crocuses.

And for those of you not on social media and who didn’t hear my squeals of delight all the way from Birmingham I thought I would just update you on my amazing Judges Choice Award for Dandelion Clock!

Now I know how all those Olympic medal winners feel! I was seriously beyond chuffed to have my quilt recognised at Festival of Quilts and I’m still beaming about it.

For the crocus small project I was delighted to be using the brand new collection by one of my favourite designer’s Sally Kelly! If you remember I used some of her current Paradiso collection for the poppy sewing machine cover.

This is just a small selection of the stunning ‘Eden’ from Windham Fabrics that will hit the stores in February 2022. How lucky am I to get to play with some now?!

As I said the FPP should be very straightforward after all those Fan Flowers. The main difference is that the numbered sections don’t run from one end of the template to the other in the straight forward way of the Fan Flower templates, but as long as you can count you shouldn’t go wrong.

The actual crocus block is made up of two mirror image crocuses and you need to make sure you are using the correct leaf and stalk templates when planning your fabric, either B & C or D & E. The flowerhead is the same for each side of the block as it simply rotates to face either way.

You should end up with four units for each half of the block as shown above right. One of these is not FPP but is just a background fabric strip.

These get pieced together and then another strip is added between the flowers to make the full ‘two crocus’ block for the quilt row.

I decided that I would make a tall Fabric Pot using my crocuses so I didn’t use that extra strip. Instead I messed up my calculations and made four flowers before realising that I would only need three (see image at top of the page)!

I decided to sew them together so that one pair faced each other and another faced away. Not sure why now as, looking at this in hindsight, having them face in the same direction might have been better! But last week is just a blur now…

I layered the three blocks over wadding and quilted close wavy lines on my machine using this beautiful Aurifil variegated 12wt cotton thread. Once finished I trimmed the length of the strip to 17 1/2″.

I followed my Fabric Storage Pot Tutorial to make this pot. It is a fun quick project!

These make great containers for all sorts of things or fill them with goodies and send them to someone as a gift.

I’ve had such fun making a different small project every two weeks and highlighting how versatile this pattern is. It’s also been great way to point readers to my existing tutorials. I have produced quite a few over the years so if you’ve enjoyed the fabric pot or the easy tote bag why not check out what else I have on offer via the Tutorial tab above?

The Crocus Sponsored Prize!

Our remaining sponsor for part six of the QAL is Dashwood Studios who are offering two Fat Quarter Bundles!

That’s 8 FQs of Boho Meadow by Bethan Janine and 8 FQs of Winterfold by Ali Brookes. I love Dashwood fabrics, they were always a best seller when I had my Edinburgh shop and I continue to use them in my quilts especially their new Pop Solids range.

To enter the giveaway all you need to do is use the hashtag #beddingplantsQALcrocus when you post your Crocus blocks in your feed on Instagram, or share your Crocus blocks in a post in the Bedding Plants QAL Facebook group.

I will choose a random winner from the combined IG and FB posts of Crocus blocks. You have from now until midnight BST Sunday 15th August to share your Crocus blocks on either platform. I will draw a winner on Monday 16th August and post in both places.

I’ll be back with a ‘Finishing Up’ post next time, with info about sewing your rows together, quilting and binding!

Remember as your host I am here to help, so if you have any questions just comment below or send me an email to [email protected].

Looking forward to seeing all your beautiful crocuses!