The theme for the ‘Seams to be Sew’ 2020 bloghop is ‘It’s a Garden Party’ and the blocks are fabulous. My inspiration this year is from the song ‘English country Garden’ by Jimmie Rogers. I had a plan to make blocks that matched up to the flowers and birds in the song. But I’m a bit of purist, and he’s mixed up a whole heap of North American birds like cardinals and bobolinks which should not appear in an English country garden. So I thought about it, and decided really whatever speaks to us of the idea of a country garden is just fine. I admit to having a very eclectic mix of flowers jumbled up in my head: roses, African daisies, kangaroo paw, bird of paradise, petunias, poppies, forget-me-nots, jacaranda, poinciana, camellia, azalea, viola, freesia, heart’s ease, grevillea …. and why not. They are a total celebration of colour and form.

This week’s block is hollyhocks. I love hollyhocks. Firstly, they have a great name. Secondly they have a lot of style. They look round but are five-petalled.

I love the fact that nature loves Fibonacci sequence. This sequence is formed by adding the previous two terms, so, you start at 1 and 1. Then: 1+1 = 2; 1+2 = 3; 2+3 = 5; 3+5 = 8; 5+8 = 13. So the sequence of numbers is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13, ….. and its a pleasing fact of nature that many flowers have numbers of petals that belong to Fibonacci’s sequence. The ones that don’t, like lemon flowers which have 4 petals, are a special category of weird .

Back to the topic: hollyhocks block. My block is 9” x 18” tall and is basically 8 flowers on one stem. I’m trying to work out if that is just one hollyhock, or actually hollyhocks (plural). Here’s the block.

It looks a bit more complicated than it is. Basically, each flower is made up in a sort of log cabin spiral starting from the centre, then the green background and stalk snippets are added, so there are a few FPP sections. The sections go together in diagonal stripes, and then the yellow centres are added in applique. I used a batik for the flowers that had a few pink shades in it, and I used the variability in colour to give the flowers more light and shade.

As before we have some lovely Northcott fabric to use and we are all very much appreciative of the fabric because firstly, it’s such lovely fabric, and the patterns are great, and secondly, it’s so nice to be supported by Northcott.

My fabrics are from the bold beautiful basics and I ordered pinks and greens. The pinks are from the Toscana range 9020 -233 and 9020-234 and the greens are stonehenge gradations 39300-72 and Essence 9025-78. Now, because I’m in Australia, I made the block before i got the fabric, but expect to see this lovely fabric in my next pattern which will be a rose.

download hollyhocks pattern here

Gentians are also five petalled , and the blocks look great together. It’s not free anymore, but keep an eye on my blog as I’ll leave the flower patterns free for a week.

download gentian block

I’ve been having a lot of fun making patterns for a number of other flowers. But the fun kind of stops when you get into the nitty-gritty of working out the FPP sequence…. applique is so much easier! But I’m challenging myself to make pieced blocks. So I think the next one I will do is the rose. Roses and camellias are great because you can piece them with a sort of log cabin plan. Here is my rose block in planning. I’m going to try and add one flower each week so feel free to leave me a comment and check back! It will really motivate me to keep going.

This is from a photo I took one Christmas in the Rose Garden by the lake in Taupo. The flowers were just beautiful, the scent was overpowering, and we just enjoyed it all.

Don’t forget to check out the other blogs for today, Thursday, October 08, 2020

Duck Creek Mountain Quilting (that’s me)
Lynn's Beauty
Quilt Art
Renee's Quilting Addiction
Sew Incredibly Crazy

And now for the giveaway!. Don’t forget to add a comment to be entered into the draw.

Oh, how lucky are we! It’s an Aurifil Mystery Thread pack, a large bundle of 12 spools (squeak, squeak, I’m excited) valued at $140. I don’t know about you, but I love thread and I would be soooo happy to win this.

Now the giveaway starts October 8, 2020 and Ends October 13, 2020 so add a comment and enter the rafflecopter

Thank you Aurifil!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But that’s not all! electric quilt is offering 20% off discount code off any products except EQ Academy.

The coupon code is: GARDENPARTY20.

Thank you electric quilt!. Don’t forget the code: GARDENPARTY20

It's a Garden Party quilt bloghop!