Hi! I’m Leanne from Devoted Quilter and today I’m excited to share my Formal Garden quilt made with Sunshine and Dewdrops fabrics by Sandy Gervais. The Formal Garden pattern is available as a PDF or a printed pattern (with free shipping!).
It was especially fun to be working with these pretty spring-like fabrics while it was snowing here in Newfoundland, Canada. The Formal Garden pattern includes instructions to make baby, throw and queen size quilts and I chose to make the baby size this time. I love how quickly baby quilts stitch up!
This print reminds me of knitted stitches. The pattern includes a note about how to cut directional fabrics so they’ll be going the right way in the finished blocks, so it should have been perfectly simple to have those knitted stitches lined up correctly. However, I didn’t pay attention enough to even notice that the print was directional until after it was cut. Not one of my brighter moments, to be sure.
I love that Formal Garden doesn’t require matching any points, thanks to all the sashing strips. It makes sewing the top together stress-free. I used Confetti Cotton solid in Iron as the sashing for this version. The dark sashing adds some fun drama to the quilt, don’t you think?
The flowers scattered over the fabrics gave me the perfect quilting design. This loopy flower meander is one of my favourite designs to stitch because it’s pretty and quick and the flowers don’t have to be perfect for it to look good. I used Aurifil 50 wt thread for the quilting in a bright yellow that matches the yellow fabrics and looks fabulous against the solid Iron sashing and backing.
If you want to make your own Formal Garden quilt, get the PDF or printed pattern in my shop.
You can connect with me on my blog, Devoted Quilter, and on Instagram and Facebook, too. I love making new quilty friends, so I hope you’ll come say hi!