Bloom Sew Along

What a wonderful thing Spring can be. The time of year for new growth with all plants blooming. To celebrate the coming of Spring we are following Lori Holt, from Bee in My Bonnet, sew along called Bloom. You may also know her from Farm Girl Vintage and her fabric line Calico Days.

Every week Lori Holt will be releasing one of her Bloom blocks every week. If you want to follow along with us at the store you can come to our Blooming Quilt Along the 3rd Sunday of every month, taught by Lori Stevens.

I will also be posting pictures of our Lori’s Bloom blocks as the class goes so you can follow along at home if you want. We have the Sew Simple Shape templates in at the store along with all the other supplies Lori Holt suggests for doing her blocks.

So let’s start with the basics. There are some supplies that you need to do this sew along. Sew Simple Shapes templates created by Lori Holt specifically for Bloom are a must. You will also need sew-in stabilizer to do the applique technique she uses. Some other suggested helpful supplies are Roxanne’s Glue Baste-it, Point 2 Point Turner, applique pins and a 1/4″ bias tape maker. I also recommend a Frixion pen for tracing templates. If you are doing invisible machine applique I recommend using Monopoly Thread.

If you can’t come to class and have Lori Stevens teach you how to do the applique method please visit Lori Holt’s Blog Bee in My Bonnet to find videos on how to do the blocks.

If you are following along with Lori Stevens class you will see she is using Calico Days by Lori Holt for Riley Blake. It’s a cute new fabric line with a fun vintage feel. We are offering a starter kit for this class that includes all the basic fabrics used for the shop sample (minus background fabric). It gives you great variety without having to buy a lot of fabric.

Now if you want a more modern look you can use some like you see in my choices below. I chose a variety of black and white backgrounds for the flower blocks and then a mix of Cotton + Steel, Allison Glass plus a few others for bright flowers.

After following the instructions on how to make the applique pieces I chose to machine stitch my pieces with Monopoly thread. Remember you will need to reduce your tension so the thread won’t stretch. You could also use coordinating cotton thread to sew down the pieces. I used a zig zag stitch that I lengthened and reduced the width slightly so the thread just catches the applique piece and the background piece. If you are machine stitching the pieces I also recommend using a stabilizer such as Shape Flex. I prefer Shape Flex because it is fusible and light weight so you don’t get a lot of bulk.

So I have finished blocks 1 and 2 from the sew along and await block 3. If you take the class, which I highly recommend especially if you are new to applique and templates, the blocks will be done in a different order. The benefit of class is that you will get personal instruction and hands on experience making these blocks and learning the techniques.

So Happy Sewing until the next block is done!