Table Of Contentbe a u t i f ul b o t a nic a l s
45 APPLIQUÉ FLOWERS & 14 QUILT PROJECTS
deborah kemball
Text copyright © 2011 by Deborah Kemball Cover/Book Designer: Kristen Yenche
Artwork copyright © 2011 by C&T Publishing, Inc. Production Coordinator: Jenny Leicester
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Beautiful Botanicals. These designs may be used to make items only for personal use or donation
For Benj, Nick, Hugo, Max, and Gus,
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Acknowledgments
Attention Copy Shops: Please note the following exception—publisher and author give permis-
sion to photocopy the template patterns on pages 14–105, and pattern pullout pages P1–P2 for
Thanks to Den Haan & Wagenmakers
personal use only.
BV in Amsterdam for their kind dona-
Attention Teachers: C&T Publishing, Inc., encourages you to use this book as a text for teaching.
tions of great quantities of gorgeous
Contact us at 800-284-1114 or www.ctpub.com for lesson plans and information about the C&T
Creative Troupe. red tone-on-tone chintz.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kemball, Deborah.
Beautiful botanicals : 45 appliqué flowers & 14 quilt projects / Deborah Kemball.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-57120-961-0 (soft cover)
1. Appliqué--Patterns. 2. Quilting--Patterns. 3. Flowers in art. I. Title.
TT779.K46 2011
746.44’5--dc22
2010021402
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PREFACE . . . 4
INTRODUCTION . . . 5
THE BASICS . . . 7 Part 2: THE PROJECTS . . . 52
Part 1: THE FLOWERS . . . 12 171/2˝ × 171/2˝ Pillows 52
Baltimore Beauty Flower 13 Butterfly and Berries Pillow 55
Bluebells 15 Autumn Tiger Lily with Asters Pillow 57
Chrysanthemum 16 Forget-Me-Nots and Pansies Pillow 59
Dahlia 18
Baltimore Beauty and Bluebells Pillow 61
Daisy 20
Spring Wreath Pillow 63
Forget-Me-Not 22
Harvest Wreath Pillow 66
Fuchsia (Single and Double) 23
Jacobean Tree of Life Wallhanging 69
Grapes / Wisteria / Hanging Blooms 25
Star Flower Heart Wallhanging 74
Iris 26
Mexican Heart Wallhanging 77
Lily 28
Vine Fruits Table Runner 81
Michaelmas Daisy / Coneflower 30
Floral Sampler Wallhanging 85
Mimosa / Floral Spray / Berries 32
Indian Garden Wallhanging 88
Pansy 34
Jacobean Sampler Wallhanging 91
Peony 35
Floral Fantasy Wallhanging 94
Pomegranate 37
Star Flower 39 Part 3: THE BORDERS . . . 100
Stargazer Lily 41 Simple 1˝ Sawtooth Border 100
Sunflower / Aster / Zinnia 43 Simple Sawtooth with Circles Border 102
Sweet William 44 Simple Daisy and Hearts Border 103
Whirled Flower 45 Fuchsia Border and Corner Design 104
Easy Template Flowers 47 Chrysanthemum Border 105
Butterfly 48
GALLERY . . . 106
Nosegay 49
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . 111
Additional Leaf Templates 50
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Like many other quilters, I trod a fairly intensive path of move to Canada, when I foresaw long periods in small
embroidery, knitting, and tapestry before discovering hotel rooms, I would make a hand-appliquéd Baltimore
quilting. While living in Eindhoven in the south of the Album–style quilt. I looked at pictures of Baltimore quilts
Netherlands and being heavily pregnant with our third online; however, though I could appreciate the huge
son, I passed a quilt shop and was awed by the baby amount of work that had gone into all of them, I found
quilt in the window. Intrigued, I went in and was their designs very busy. So instead, I decided to alter-
dazzled by the huge array of fabrics and quilts on dis- nate the wreaths and hearts with individual flowers.
play. I left with a large bag of fat quarters and instruc-
Completely by accident, when playing around with the
tions for my first quilt. The die was cast. I dropped my
individual flower designs in my Baltimore Album quilt,
knitting needles, tapestry needles, and everything else
I became fascinated with the new patterns made by
and became addicted to fabric and quilts.
repeating the flower along various axes of symmetry. I
After our time in the Netherlands, my husband’s work decided to bring these designs into the quilt too. By the
took us to Costa Rica, where I found a treasure trove of time I had completed the quilt, I knew that in appliqué I
discount fabric shops selling quilting fabric from the had found my real love in the world of quilting.
United States. Nearly all the fabric was flawed in some
I discovered that I could transpose my flower design
way or other, so I could buy yards of fabric for cents
ideas well within this medium. Less influenced by tra-
at a time. Liberated by the cheap prices, I became an
ditional appliqué design and more by the chintzes of
enthusiastic machine piecer, averaging one newly made
the eighteenth century, I experimented with moving
quilt every three weeks. But my machine, hammering
outside the traditional block concept by using swirling
away through triangles and squares, added the agony
floral designs and borders.
and frustration of mismatched seams and made me
I had my big color renaissance during our first Quebec
tense and dissatisfied. I decided that perhaps I wasn’t
winter. Our white quilts and white sofas looked so bleak
cut out for machine piecing and quilting; as a result, I
against the endless winter landscape, which marks
became very keen on hand quilting. I made a number
Quebec for nearly half the year. Until then, I had only
of self-designed white-on-white wholecloth quilts
lived in the tropics and in Europe, so I had never real-
and strippies that remain some of my favorites to this
ized how much I needed color until it was absent for so
day. Their Spartan white simplicity worked well in the
long. I began working with bright reds and loved the
tropics where, with so much riotous color of flowering
results and the joy of combining colors.
trees, bougainvillea, and hibiscus going on outside our
windows, we preferred simple cool interiors. I have really found what I love to do. It has also been an
unexpected pleasure to see my patterns created in such
By this time, I was beginning to consider appliqué.
a wide variety of fabrics by students who put their own
Several years earlier, I had made five small appliqué
ideas into my designs.
blocks, which I had designed myself. These blocks were
heavily influenced by my previous designs for tapestries I hope that you enjoy all of these designs and that you
and were quite unlike any traditional appliqué normally will put yourself and your own ideas into them, so they
associated with quilting. I decided that during our become unique and all the more special.
4 BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS
INTROdUCTION
I am known among my students for my belief that For marking fabric, the special fabric-marking pencils
quilting can be achieved with minimal tools, in the always seem to break. Instead, I tend to use my chil-
same way that quilting was done centuries ago. I find dren’s colored pencils in white or yellow.
I need very little in terms of special equipment. In fact,
I use standard white rubber erasers that I cut with scis-
if you were to look at the mess of my sewing drawers,
sors into fine points for hard-to-reach areas.
I don’t think you would be able to guess that I am a
full-time quilter. It’s not an impressive collection. I use great spools of masking tape for everything, from
hanging my designs on windows to cleaning off the
You would find:
loose threads that cling to me endlessly. I also use it to
standard scissors (which, contrary to the rule, I use clean my ironing board at the end of each day.
for everything, paper included)
My iron seems to be permanently on. I shock intrepid
a few odd pins quilters by using it at very high heat—even pressing my
Roxanne Between Needles No. 9 (which I use for silk quilts with a really hot, steaming iron.
absolutely all my sewing)
I love Hobbs wool batting because it’s like quilting
a roll of freezer paper through butter. I also like the loft it gives with my heavy
Mylar heatproof plastic echo quilting.
a diverse selection of threads I have a fabric stash, but it is not as huge as one might
several cheap basic metal thimbles (which I wear expect. I love to use the tone-on-tone chintzes from
until they wear through) Den Haan & Wagenmakers in Holland. I have several of
their gorgeous floral fabrics for fussy cutting. In addi-
Thimble wearing is a good habit. I feel uneasy and
tion to those, I have a large selection of fat quarters in
cannot sew if I don’t have one on the middle finger of
prints, batiks, and commercial hand dyes.
my right hand when sewing or on both middle fingers
when quilting. A cursory glance at the pictures in this book will give
away the fact that I love red. I can’t get away from it,
Only my collection of threads might give away my love
nor do I want to. However, I can assure you that I have
of appliqué. I sometimes use monofilament silk, but
seen my designs made in every other color, and they
I confess that it makes me tense and bad tempered,
look equally lovely in all the colors of the rainbow.
because my heavy hand frequently breaks the thread. I
am fast and ruthless with my needle. Although I prefer
Gutermann coarser silk thread, I have found that their
color choice is limited. I am not in the least bit averse
to using whatever thread I can find in my drawers if the
color works.
INTROdUCTION 5
How to Use This Book
In Part 1: The Flowers (pages 12–51), you will find templates
and detailed instructions for creating all the flowers. Although
presented in sizes to fit 7˝ blocks, the flowers are actually
intended purely as a reference for the projects in Part 2
(pages 52–99). The similar scale of the flowers means that
they are all interchangeable and can be substituted for one
another in the different projects. So if you particularly love
one flower more than another, you can easily substitute it.
In addition to the large number of flowers, you will
find five different border options in Part 3: The Borders
(pages 100–105). I hope you will want to challenge yourself
and combine the flowers and borders to your delight. The
possibilities are almost limitless.
Palampore Tree of Life (page 109) shows how well one block
can be surrounded by consecutive borders. If you aren’t
feeling very ambitious, a single bloom surrounded by the
simplest border of all—the Simple 1˝ Sawtooth Border
(page 100)—is a lovely project to get you started. Should
you feel like a challenge, both Floral Sampler (page 85) and
Floral Fantasy (page 94) use almost all the flowers shown in
Part 1. I am delighted with these two quilts, both of which
portray the look I love most of all—a mass of trailing stems
and flowers. These two quilts are reminiscent of the gorgeous
chintz designs that found their way from India to Europe in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that remain,
for me, designs of timeless beauty.
6 BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS
THE BASICS
Positioning Appliqués
TIP
on the Background When tracing, you don’t have to mark every detail of
the design; just mark enough to position the appliqués
and stitch the embroidery. Mark the berries, grapes,
NOTE
and other template circles and ovals with a cross
Although Option 1 is my preferred method, it requires or dot.
that you photocopy and enlarge the reduced version
of the pattern to a full-size pattern and trace it onto
the background fabric. This method is used in the OPTION 2: USING A DRAWING
instructions presented throughout this book. For the FOR PLACEMENT
larger quilts, I highly recommend that you follow
this method. Refer to the template as a guide. Start in the middle of
the design and position the appliqués, using the pat-
If you prefer not to make a full-size pattern, however,
tern for reference. This method is easier to accomplish
you can follow Option 2 to position the appliqués
with small projects than with large ones.
and embroidery.
Making Small Circles
OPTION 1: TRANSFERRING THE PATTERN and Ovals
1. Photocopy the design, enlarging it to full size , if Many of my flowers are made with premade circles and
necessary. Large designs can be copied in sections ovals, using Mylar or cardstock templates. Use a largish
and taped together or taken to a photocopy shop and seam allowance to make the berries and petals look
enlarged in one piece. stuffed and to add extra texture to the finished piece.
Heavy echo quilting makes them pop out even more.
2. Use masking tape to attach a full-size paper pattern
to a window. Tape the background fabric on top of the 1. Use a fine permanent marker to trace the motif onto
pattern. Make sure that the fabric edges are aligned Mylar or cardstock.
properly before taping the top and bottom.
2. Cut out the shapes on the line.
3. Trace the design onto the background fabric (I use a
3. Place the template on the right side of the fabric and
standard white colored pencil). Trace slightly inside the
cut out the shape, leaving a 1/4˝ seam allowance.
lines of the paper pattern motifs to avoid erasing col-
ored pencil marks after appliqué.
TIP
For oval shapes, place the length of the template
shape on the bias of the fabric, if possible. This makes
it much easier to form smooth curves during appliqué.
THE BASICS 7
4. Knot a piece of thread and make Using Freezer Paper Templates
a small neat running stitch 1/8˝ from
the outer edge. Use freezer paper to make your templates (except the circle and oval
shapes). I never leave my freezer paper on the fabric during appliqué.
5. Place the template on the reverse
side of the fabric. 1. Place freezer paper, shiny side down, onto the pattern to be copied.
Trace the shape.
2. Cut out the shape on the line.
3. Use a hot, dry iron to press the freezer paper, shiny side down, onto the
right side of the fabric. Whenever possible, place the length of the freezer
paper shape on the bias of the fabric.
4. Cut out the shape, leaving a generous 1/4˝ seam allowance. Snip inner
curves if necessary, as shown in the following photo. Curves will appliqué
easier and curvier this way!
Trace, cut out, and baste the shape.
6. Pull the thread to gather the
fabric tightly around the template.
Press with a hot iron.
Press, cut out, and clip.
Embellishing
Pull to gather the fabric around the
template. WHIPSTITCH
7. When cool, remove the template, I use a whipped running stitch for stems,
gather the fabric, and press again. tendrils, and stamens extensively. This
stitch produces a bold, wavy line, perfect
TIP
for tendrils.
Leave a long thread so that you
1. With embroidery floss, stitch a small
can regather the shape if it has
running stitch on the marked line. I
lost its sharp creases.
usually use all 6 strands for stems and
tendrils and 3 strands for stamens Stitch a small running stitch.
and other embellishments.
8 BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS
2. With the eye of the needle, 3. Bring the needle and thread to 6. Continue in this way until you
weave the thread loosely back the top of the fabric. Make a loop have blanket stitched the entire
through each running stitch. around the double stitches, without length. Fasten off on the reverse of
(Using the eye of the needle going through the fabric. the fabric.
instead of the point will prevent
snagging the fabric.) Secure the
thread on the wrong side of the
background fabric.
Loop thread around the stitches. Finished stitch
4. Pull the thread taut, so it makes
BEADS
a blanket-style stitch around the
2 threads.
I love to use tiny beads, seed
Use the eye of the needle to weave the
thread through the stitches. pearls, and crystals to embellish my
flowers. I find the easiest needle
DETACHED to use is a No. 10 between, which
BUTTONHOLE STITCH will go through the tiniest of beads.
I sew on embellishments after
This stitch works well for stamen
quilting and binding.
heads.
1. Using all 6 strands of embroidery
floss, make a 3/8˝ stitch at the stamen
end of the stem.
Pull the thread taut.
2. Make a second stitch in the same
5. Repeat to make a second blanket
place as the first.
stitch.
Make 2 stitches.
Make a second stitch.
THE BASICS 9
