If you love flowers, applique and beautiful quilts, I know you will LOVE Appliqué Petal Party by first time C&T author Susan Brubaker Knapp. Susan is the women behind the website bluemoonriver.com, and also has a blog. Both sites have great resources and lots of inspiration for quilters. Appliqué Petal Party is the latest of our pattern packs to hit store shelves. It includes an 8-page color booklet and 9 pattern sheets for making 16 wonderful 12½” bouquet blocks & a floral border. The booklet includes full instructions for a beautiful pink 73″ x 73″ quilt and photos of a variety of other color options for inspiration. We asked Susan for the low-down on herself and her new release and here’s what she told us:
I started quilting in 1990 as a hobby, and really got into it when I had young children, and left my full-time job to stay at home with them. Caring for small children and a home can be a great joy, but it is certainly tedious work at times! You cook, and the food gets eaten; you wash, and the clothes get dirty; you vacuum, and the floors accumulate new dust bunnies; but those stitches stay in! Quilting was a way for me to create something permanent, beautiful and useful, while expressing my creativity.
Today, I am a quilt artist, designer and teacher. Sometimes, I think of myself as a “multiple personality disorder quilter,” because I adore and make both traditional, hand appliquéd and quilted pieces, and contemporary art quilts that are real works of art executed in fabrics and fibers. I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and earned an undergraduate degree in English and my M.A. in Journalism. I have no formal art training. I now live near Charlotte, NC, with my husband, Rob, and two daughters. I love to cook, garden, and do home renovations (we live in a 1916 Queen Anne/Craftsman house).
I was almost finished with my “Pink Petal Party” quilt, which I had been working on for more than two years, when I was approached by C&T Publishing about producing it in a form that would make it very easy for appliquérs to use. I loved the concept: a booklet with instructions, and separate pattern sheets with full-size designs for the 12-1/2″ blocks, sashings and borders. I’ve made a lot of quilts that have the appliqué patterns bound into a book, and they are sometimes cumbersome to work with, so this is a great solution. This is a great book for those who already have some experience doing needleturn appliqué who need a bit of a challenge. I think it would be great to do as a block-of-the-month project. Appliqué is a wonderful hobby for people on the go, since it is very portable. I stitched a lot of this quilt while waiting for my kids at soccer practice or dentist appointments. If you do a little bit every day, you’ll be surprised how fast you’ll have a whole quilt! My quilt is very girly, all pink with a little green, so I asked some of my friends who are excellent appliquérs to create blocks from the quilt in different color schemes. It was so fun to see how different – and wonderful – they looked. One friend used wool and buttonhole stitch appliqué, and turned her block into a beautiful pillow. The eight-page booklet includes basic needleturn instructions, step-by-step instruction for making “Pink Petal Party,” and tips. If you’ve never made a scalloped border, don’t be afraid! There are photos and instructions for this, too.
Leave a comment below telling us about your favorite “petals” – to grow in your garden or incorporate into your quilting or craft projects – and one lucky commenter will receive their very own Appliqué Petal Party pattern pack! Good luck! Comments will be closed at 9am PST on Monday 10/26/09.
83 Comments
I enjoy gardening so I’m a fan of almost any flower. I particularly like your size blocks. Not too big and not sooo small, just right. I’d look forward to needleturning a few and not being overwhelmed. BarbR
I don’t think there are many flowers that I DON’T like! My favorites are roses, sunflowers and cone flowers. I sure like the photos I see posted above…sure hope I win a copy! ;-)
My garden is filled with white, pink and blue flowers and I love them all!
What an exiting giveaway!
My favourite petals are the flowers I applique. I have several projects on the go with mostly wild flowers – purple cone flowers are my favourites. I would love to win this book!!!
my favorite are hibiscus.
Oh, tough to choose a favorite! Judging by my quilts so far – sunflowers, clematis, roses and peonies!
Love Susan’s work, web site and blog and specially got a kick out of her “multiple personality disorder quilter” – I feel I am one too!!! Make all kinds of quilts (traditional and contemporary/art), teach and design them – and LOVE it all! :-)
I love flowers…real ones and fabric…but live in one of the hottest climates in southern Nevada…I do grow flowers but have better luck with my applique’d ones. I’ve improved my applique’ skills so much this year thanks to on-line resources and blogs…which I really appreciate! Your book looks wonderful…I, too, love traditional and contemporary quilts!
Lately I’ve loved the zinnias in my garden! Thanks for the chance.
My favorite flower in my garden is Peonies. . . they are such big, colorful gorgeous smelling flowers! I haven’t used them in my quilting yet… I tend to stick with simple daisy shapes so far . .. my second favorite flower is the Garbera Daisy.
I love flowers! Each one has it’s own beauty to share. My favorite flower is a rose. They are just so exquisite to me. But I also love pansies, with their little faces. Thanks for a great giveaway :-)
Roses are my all time favorite flower, but I love all flowers. I’m an machine appliquer and I would love to win Susan’s stunningly gorgeous petal party pattern pack. Thanks for the chance to win.
I received a beautiful hot pink potted azalea from my son for my birthday in February and it kept blooming while we went on vacation in March and left it for my parents to plant sit. Since I live in Minnesota, this was great color in a dreary time. Well, I kept in in the sun near the window when we returned until it finally warmed up in May. Then I moved it outside into the flower garden and it bloomed all the way until a week ago when it snowed and froze. It was such a long living beautiful gift.
Please count me in. This book looks delightful. I love quilting & gardening. Favorite flowers are daisies.
SewCalGal
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
Hi Susan, I’m a fellow North Carolinian and English major! but I have yet to try needleturn applique. It looks like your book may just be the project for me to learn with. I love flowers and will probably make mine with bright colors like your friend.
No matter what, I’ll be buying your book for this winter’s quiet project.
Suzanne G in NC
Oh this looks just so pretty, my favourtie flower is the rose.
They are just coming into bloom at the moment. We are having a beautiful Spring day here. Happy days.
My favorites are purple coneflower and lavender. They are about the only flowers in my garden tyhat the deer don’t eat!
The applique is amazing!!! Very beautiful quilts.
I don’t think there is a flower that grows that isn’t beautiful. I do think that my favorite flower to applique is a daisy. Thank you for the chance to win this great pattern.
I really would like to make a similar quilt with maple leaves. We are surrounded by these trees and how great that quilt could look on my wall! Thanks for the info and for thinking of us!
Gardenias are my absolute favorite flower. While growing up in Northern California I’d sometimes spend the night at my Aunt Honey’s house. I would wake up to the most wonderful smell in the whole world; the scent of the gardenia that was resting on my pillow. She had a habit of doing that and for as long as I can remember the gardenia has been my favorite flower.
I love all flowers and have a hard time choosing just one. I guess I would say zinnias, a bright annual flower that grows in almost any soil, lasts all summer, and provides good cut flowers in many colors.
My favorite flowers in my garden are my roses. But I pretty much like ALL flowers – so I’m very excited for this book
This pattern looks very nice. I especially like cone flowers, so of course I like the block pictured. I also like pansies and daffodils. Thanks for the opportunity to enter.
I do love flowers but not much of a gardener ~ sewing and knitting are more my style. Luckily my lilacs, lily of the valley, trilliums and roses manage to survive and bloom beautifully each year.
My favorite petals are Birds of Paradise and roses…but I am not a gardener—I have black thumbs!
SUNFLOWERS!!!!….. for the fall, of course.
PANSIES – for the summer!
Tks for adding my name in your hat!
Rosa Robichaud
robich@rogers.com
My absolute favorite flower is Sweet Peas. They smell heavenly. Pretty in applique too.
My favorite petal has to be orchids, because of their colors, and it’s smell, I adore them, well actually in a quilt doesn’t smell, but if you aplique an orchid, it almost look like!, I’d love to have the book, please count me in!
Never met a flower I didn’t like. I’m currently into an African Daisy phase. I think next year I might still be planting Daisies. They’d be great in a quilt. And I do enjoy applique. Thanks for the great giveaway.
Daisies are my favorite. I am working on a quilt of daisy fabric right now and I think I will call it ” Daisies do me right” . :-)
Black eyed Susans are my current favorite, in my garden and on a quilt I made. The quilt was made to celebrate my life after surviving being hit by a car. I had lots of injuries but one of the most visible was a black eye that lasted 4 months. I couldn’t quilt for a long time due to head and shoulder injuries but when I could the first quilt I made was Black eyed Susans.
Sue Cahill (sbonetsue at yahoo dot com)
I just love daffodils. they’re so cheery and joyful in the spring.
Ann
this book looks stunning. I cannot wait to see it.
My favorite flower is an Iris. closely followed by a pansy. I think I like the blue/violet coloring of both best.
Oh, it is so much fun to read all your comments! I wish you could all win a copy. Thanks for sharing your flower thoughts with us.
And to Suzanne Gwynne: it is nice to meet a fellow North Carolinian!
By the way, that lovely coneflower wall hanging at the bottom of the post was made by my dear friend Grace Howes. You can see more of her beautiful work on her website:
http://www.redbarn-studios.com
and her blog:
http://barnyardchatter.wordpress.com
love, love, love, flowers, applique, real…
Sunflowers are a favorite.. especially quilts with sunflowers….
My favorite flowers are all appliqued. Poppies are particulary pretty in applique. And, that quilt is pinkalicious!
My favorite petals to applique are roses and orchids, especially when I can find shaded fabrics to add depth to the center sections.
My favourite petals to applique are the flowers I have drawn from the decals of old sewing machines. The Lotus Flower is one of my favourites
i have lots and lots of black eyed susan’s in the garden and a whole mountainside of wildflowers out back. one of my favorites to applique is the yellow coneflower. I applique background petals and make others to sew on top for a 3-D effect.
I absolutely love Day Lilies! The colors that they come in, the shape of the flower and their smell is what I love about them. I have several varieties in my garden! I also love the Stargazer Lily–another great fragrance and color! I do believe they are in Susan’s quilt! Please add my name to the drawing, I would so love to win. Thank you.
The book looks great. I love black eyed susans, sunflowers and gerberas.
My favorite petal is on a sunflower. I love sunflower applique.
Smiles,
Kelly
I love lilacs! I would love to see more patterns using this lovely flower! Great book!
Susan you are amazing! I have loved some of your patterns and I can’t wait to see your book.
I love applique flowers! All of them. My gardening skills are somewhat lacking, but I have bouganvillia blooming from a plant that is over 25 years old! I love their vibrant pink.
I love all appliqued flowers, but black-eyed susan’s are my favorite! I would love to be able to do any half as well as Susan can!
SUNFLOWERS! They look like big happy smiling faces.
I love my roses! I have all colors from red to pink to yellow to white. They make great applique blocks.
I am hopeless at keeping real flowers alive, so I love any kind of flower that can be put on a quilt!
I love all kinds of flowers, especially Susan’s since she and I are members of the same quilt guild and I get to see her beautiful work first hand!
As most of the other people who left comments said, I like all flowers, from simple wildflowers to exotic tropical beauties. I’ve always said my favorite is daisies. However, I have made two beautiful and interesting quilts using photographs of dahlias, for one, and a lily for the other. I printed the dahlias on silks, but I reproduced the lily in a variety of red fabrics.
My favorite flowers are the ones of my childhood — peonies, lilacs and geraniums. I grow them in my garden today.
My favorite petal in art and life is the dogwood blossom. The dogwood is a native to the Tahoe National Forest, and it is such a treat in the spring to get a peak of these beauties growing naturally beneath the pine canopy. Although this time of year I’m not thinking about petals, I’m in love with the fall leaves!
What a lovely giveaway!
I love all flowers!
My favorite petals are pansies..
I say there is never too much Pink in the world!
Aand my favorite flower are hibiscus and roses. I’m afraid my gardening is limited to what I can sew…I don’t have a green thumb at all.
It was a pleasure to meet Susan in Houston!
Celine Perkins
My favourite flowers are roses, yellow roses especially; hence my blog name.
I love the fragrance of rose petals.
I am very much drawn to floral fabrics. I find it difficult to chose any other kind of fabric!
Can’t wait to see this book inside!
Isn’t her work just outstanding? Her attention to detail is just awesome. I would love to have her book. Thanks so much.
Hola,
I like flowers and my favorite is the rose,in any color but arange rose ,kthe best.
I love the book photos!Happy quilts and designs
What a lovely book. Please enter me inthe drawing.
Lizzie
I can’t wait to see the book!
Favorite petals? The iris. When this flower comes in from the garden to the sewing room, it cuddles up to applique like a cat to cream. Three shapes up and three down, fringed or not, twisted, twirled, ruffled, with gold fringe tongues from cut satin stitches. The color range embraces all the scraps. The leaves are like javalin points, sometimes bent and beckoning. Even the hairy, hoary roots have curled and twirled ropy promise. And that’s my favorite petal all the way down to the last trailing threads…
So many petals, so little time! I love edible blossoms – roses, squash, merigold, violets, day lily, honeysuckle . . . the list goes on and on. They make beautiful art on a plate of food. Orchids, too. If they are very happy the flowers exude a clear nectar that can be eaten. But, my newest love is bouganvillia petals. You can transfer their beautiful color onto paper and fabric just by wetting them. You can color the water for a flower arrangement by putting a few petals in the vase – such a nice surprise.
I’m looking forward to Susan’s new book. Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks!
Daisies are the flowers I’ve used most in my quilting, althouth I love all flowers. I really like abstacts as well. I’d love a copy of Susan’s book to try hers!
I usually prefer flowers on quilts to the ones in the garden. However I really like Frangipanis as they are beautiful and easy to grow.Thanks for the giveaway
I sew petals…I don’t plant many of them (no time after all the sewing). I’m interested to see what the other colorways look like…the one on the book is so PIIINNNKKK. I prefer purple. :-)
Love sunflowers!
wonderful book, I love it.
Roses are my favourites; we’ve a chaotic hedge full!
It is hard to choose one single flower I like to applique because I love every kind of flower I’ve ever seen. I like the foliage, too! If I had to choose, I suppose it would be roses. My mother had a large and beautiful rose garden and I have such fond memories of the times when I was a little girl and Mama let me be her “assistant gardener!”
I love the scalloped border on the quilt! My favorite petal would be gardenias. We have them planted near our front door, and when they are in bloom-even the front porch can smell fabulous.
What a fabulous giveaway! Thank You!
I am a garment maker and often use various quilting techniques as a decorative (limited quantity) element on a jacket or skirt hem, etc.
Not exactly garden flowers, but I have come to love the dogwood blossoms in the spring. Your book looks delightful.
Your book looks inviting to explore.
Loving almost any flower, it is difficult for me to name one.
Italian jasmine is the first that comes in mind, because of the wonderful smell of the little white flowers on long summernights when the garden has a chance to finally cool down.
My favorite petals are those given to me by my husband! I especially love Gerber Daisy’s and Sunflowers. I’d love to be entered into your giveaway!
Flowery Memories
* yellow dandelions collected in grubby little fistfuls, placed carefully in a vase
* a young boy grasping his child-size orange shovel, transplanting a flowery treasure from a nearby vacant lot
* traipsing through a field of violets on the way home from school
* vivid pink peonies from my dear mother’s garden that now bloom in glory each spring in my garden
* ferns and flowers started in friends’ gardens that have taken root and become part of the patchwork of my garden
The joy and love represented by flowers in each of these memories is sewn into quilts that I share with my loved ones. Quilting, like gardening, represents love and memories that are cherished, and then shared with others.
I would love to own this book and love love love the applique.
Flowers are the most beautiful sights to see in my garden. Cheery and swaying in the gentle breezes – great companions while appliqueing. My favourites are the roses!
I just love each and every petal in this book.. please count me in!! Just found out about your giveaway.. thanks so much
Irises are my favorite. I love to see them early in the spring.
Applique is a wonderful way to keep nature inside with me all winter. I’m excited about the new book. Will check it out.