Lollipop Garden Quilt XV: A Bit of Whimsy

May 18, 2019 / Margaret

Lollipop Flower Garden.IB foundations_40 x 40_RS.jpg

Lollipop Garden Quilt XV (40” x 40”)

Margaret demonstrating her trace, baste, snip & stitch method for hand reverse appliqué at a quilt show.

I love the elegance of my patterns, but sometimes a “Girl, just wants to have fun”!

Fun is what I had creating Lollipop Garden Quilt XV using my whimsical Lollipop Flower block.

I first develop the Lollipop Flower block several years ago as a teaching tool.

If you’ve stopped by my quilt booths for a demo you’ve seen this little gem. I make hundreds of these demo step-outs a year to show customers how to reverse appliqué our easier way. I can baste one in about 15-20 minutes, so it’s imminently practical for mass-production. It also has a bit of everything to show: inside points, outside points, circles and curves. Plus it can be made by hand using our easy trace, baste, snip & stitch method for hand reverse appliqué, by machine to show how fast our trace, snip, iron & stitch method is and with under-coloring or over-coloring.

Smiley students showing their Lollipop Flower blocks. Students from Bunkhouse quilt shop, NH.

Lollipop Flower block with over-coloring (applique) and under-coloring.

Up until know I have kept this pattern for me to use for my demos and for short skill builder workshops at guilds and shops.

Now you too can get this whimsical block in the fun little Lollipop Garden Quilt XV pattern.

I felt inspired by Island Batiks foundation collection to design this darling black & bright quilt (40” x 40”). You can’t ever go wrong with black & bright. The sharp contrast makes a quilt vivid and cheery. And those foundation batiks are always available. Gotta love that.

Two Lollipop Flower Block sizes: 7” x 7” and 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”.

For the quilt I created two sizes of the Lollipop Flower block…a 7” size and a 3 ½” size. I opted to do reverse appliqué greenery with appliquéd blossom dots to give it some added depth and dimension.

The quilt can all be made by hand or machine. I chose to make my sample by machine. I used the satin stitch to appliqué, but wouldn’t this be cute with a blanket stitch? I’m going to have to try that myself.

I chose a diagonal layout set with 4 patch and double 4-patch blocks. It is sashed in black with bright corner posts as I wanted the blocks to appear as floating across the quilt.

We start with a larger block and square up & trim to the correct size, being sure to center the design, after stitching.

But as I’m someone who naturally brings order out of chaos, I framed it with a playful swag border that has a perky frilly edge to contain and set off the movement. After tracing and cutting out my swag and swag frill pieces, I used my Fusamat to make each swag unit. Then they were easy to position and iron onto the black border

Pink swag and yellow swag frill fused and cut out.

I peeled the paper off the frill and placed it, glue side down on the Fusamat, aligning with pattern peeking through. Iron.

Peel paper off swag and position over pattern and frill edge, on the Fusamat. Iron.

Three of my completed swags ready for placement on the border.

swag positioned and ironed onto black border.

Lollipop Garden Quilt XV (40” x 40”) in black & brights.

Lollipop Garden Quilt XV (40” x 40”) is a great new beginner/ beginner pattern! I trust you will enjoy making it and adding a touch of whimsical elegance to your life.

A little extra……For those going to Vermont Quilt Festival in June 2019, Lollipop Garden Quilt will be the focus of workshop #312 for machine reverse appliqué on Friday, June 28, 8:30 am – 11:30 am. Find out more here.

To inspire your imagination, here are some other colorways to consider.