Flowers for Betty Quilt Pattern

A few months ago, I found out that my cousin and his wife were going to have a baby. When I asked her about the nursery colors, she just told me "Wildflowers." I could have picked a pattern from a well-known author. I could have found a perfectly adequate free pattern(s) online. I spent weeks scouring the internet. I looked at Pinterest. I looked at Instagram. I checked out Facebook. I couldn't find anything that fit the feel I wanted. I had just written my very first pattern, and I guess I thought I was onto something.

So, I started with some graph paper. I decided I wanted daisies, and I knew they loved green. So my plan was a green background with daisies. I don't like paper piecing, and I'm not fond of applique, so traditional piecing was my answer. I made a test block with scrap fabric and I liked the way it looked. So, I had to figure out how many blocks I needed.

I like making baby blankets on the bigger side, this way, as the child grows, they can continue to use it. 40x50 is about where I like. It's big enough that 1.5 Yards of fabric will be enough for the back (just barely!), and it's long enough that even an adult can use it as a lap blanket. I decided that I didn't want the flowers to line up in a grid, so I did off-set rows. 5 flowers in some rows, 6 in others. That makes 28 flowers total.

Adding up all the various pieces and dimensions, I calculated how much fabric I'd need for just one block, then I multiplied that by 28. I went to the store with my measurements and I bought fabric. Later, I began cutting the fabric, and then sewing it up to make these blocks. I don't know what happened, but I had way too many pieces 1.5x2.5" but I didn't have enough of another size, and I'd used all my background fabric. So I went back to the store.

I cut more blocks, kept sewing, and then I ran out of the white flower fabric! Once again, I went back to the store for more fabric. When I got them all done, I trimmed them to size. 3 of them were wonky. They didn't look right. They weren't quite the right size. I didn't want to include them. So I decided to make a few bugs to go in the flower garden.

I scoured the internet once more for butterfly and bee patterns and discovered a few that I liked and created them with little hassle. After laying everything out, I started assembly. After I finished the top, I decided that one of the 2 butterflies (you can't really see them in this picture) was the wrong color. They were both pink, but one was a darker pink and nearly blended in with the background. Instead of seam ripping (which I hate to do!), I made another butterfly block, folded the edges under, and appliqued it on top of the old block.

Then I finished it up, packed it away, and sent it to the baby shower! It wasn't until later when I decided I should write this pattern down, and share with others. But then I remembered my errors in calculating the fabric amounts. That was not fun! I had just heard about PreQuilt, so I designed this quilt there, however, that's where I discovered Fresh as a Daisy. Lindsay had also used PreQuilt for her pattern, and there it was, waiting for me to color it in! Since mine was so similar (Different block sizes though, and they're created differently!), I reached out to her. She decided that they were different enough that there was no copyright infringement!

The pattern is currently in testing, and I hope to get feedback from my little group of testers soon, so I can make any changes to the pattern then publish it so you can all make Flowers for Betty! (The baby's name is Betty! Named after her great-great-grandmother.)