Tulip Quilt

Yes I’ve still been quilting, I just find it hard to sit down and write blog posts! Through the years I’ve seen a few of these applique tulip quilts and I absolutely love them. They have such a whimsical folk art feel. Lucky me, I realized I have the pattern already. It’s in Gwen Marston’s Liberated String Quilts book.

I love having a portable hand sewing applique project. I spend the last months working on these tulip blocks. I highly recommend them, they’re a pretty simple applique shape with great reward!

It’s so fun to choose which fabrics to use on each tulip. For the backgrounds I used a variety of low volume fabrics.

I used a plush blanket on the back and skipped any batting. It is always abit challenging because these plush blankets are slightly stretchy. The better you pin the top to the plush blanket, the less pulling and puckering you will have. You do simply have to be willing for this extra crinkly look. It’s a very soft squishy blanket, rather than a perfectly flat quilt.

I did cream colored yarn ties in the sashing cornerstones. I also hand quilted around the outside of each block. I thought I would quilt around each tulip, but in the end I preferred it without.

I should say a word about the sashing yet, since that is such an important part of the final look. Not to put the pressure on, but you can change the whole look of your quilt with the value and tone of your sashing. This can of course be for good or bad, but if you’re loving your blocks and the vibe they’re giving, be very careful as you choose your sashing that it won’t change the feel of your blocks.

For my quilt I was choosing between a very pale pink, a brighter peachy pink, and this warm yellow linen fabric. I feel like any of them would have worked well, but I was just drawn especially to this yellow. And of course I only had just enough fabric and now I realize that I adore this shade of yellow but it’s no longer available. It was from a shop on Etsy called Linengraphy. She seems to get her linens custom dyed and the piece that I used for this quilt must have been a remnant as it’s no longer available. I will say though, that her linen fabrics are beyond awesome. Watch out for the different weights as it can make quite a difference in the feel and what you’re looking for.

And that’s a completed quilt! I absolutely love the way this quilt turned out… I gave it away as a special gift and I’m so happy I could do that, as it’s my favorite thing to do with these special quilts.

And I found out there’s a digital download of Gwen Marston’s Liberated String Quilts for a good price, so you can get this tulip template and then the whole book besides! Link here.