Gardenia Quilt in Petalush Fabric

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Sometimes I order a fabric collection because I immediately know exactly what I want to make with it.

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And sometimes I order one because my daughter sees bugs and says, “It’s the Last of the Bugs.”

That was pretty much the beginning of this quilt.

When we first saw Petalush by Kylie’s Quilt Room in the Moda catalog, my daughter immediately noticed the bug prints. She’s a Noah Kahan fan, and “The Last of the Bugs” had become part of the lead-up to his new album. Between that connection and the fact that she genuinely liked the fabrics, Petalush made its way onto my order.

Once the collection arrived, I wanted to make something that could eventually belong to her while also serving as a shop sample.

Choosing the Gardenia Quilt

Petalush is a 20-piece collection filled with florals, bugs and a really pretty mix of colors. Because flowers are already such a strong part of the collection, I kept coming back to the Gardenia quilt from the book Fat Quarters by the Dozen.

Gardenia uses 12 fat quarters, with each fat quarter becoming its own large flower. The flower blocks alternate with Irish Chain blocks, so there is plenty of open space around them and the individual fabrics really get a chance to stand out.

For the background, I used Bella Solid 9900-200, a nice crisp white that gives all of those Petalush colors plenty of contrast.

One of the small florals from the collection became the accent fabric running through the Irish Chain blocks.

Easier Piecing Than It Might Look

Despite those big flower blocks, Gardenia is a pretty beginner-friendly quilt.

Each flower has an Ohio Star center surrounded by petals created with simple sew-and-flip corners. The hourglass units used in the Ohio Stars are made slightly oversized and then trimmed down, which makes getting accurate blocks much easier.

This was also a great quilt for batch piecing.

I made the hourglass units together, moved on to the Ohio Star centers, and then worked through the petals for all 12 flowers. Once I got into the rhythm of making each component, the quilt came together nicely.

I made all of my blocks first and worried about the final placement afterward. When it was time to lay out the quilt, I simply spread the colors around so I didn’t end up with two blue flowers or two pink flowers sitting right beside one another.

The finished quilt measures 66½” × 66½”.

Floral Quilting for a Floral Quilt

With all of that white background, the quilting was definitely going to show on this one.

I chose the Bloomlet pantograph from Longarm League. It has small floral shapes mixed with swirls, so it continues the floral theme without being overly literal.

I quilted it fairly densely because I wanted those little quilted flowers to stay relatively small rather than having giant blooms stretching across the background.

I used Linen Glide thread along with Quilter’s Dream 80/20 batting.

For the backing, I went outside the Petalush collection and used Poparazzi in Mellow Rose, a Riley Blake Designs basic. The color coordinated beautifully with the Petalush prints, and using a basic for a large backing is also an easy way to save a little compared with using a full-price collection print.

For the binding, I went back to the Petalush collection and chose a dark green stripe. The darker edge gives the quilt a nice frame and a little contrast against all of that crisp white background.

One Shop Sample That’s Staying in the Family

This quilt had two jobs from the beginning: show what the Petalush fabrics could become and eventually become my daughter’s quilt.

Luckily, she likes the finished version!

I do too. I especially like the combination of those oversized flower blocks and the Irish Chain. There’s enough going on to make the quilt interesting, but the construction itself is very approachable.

Gardenia quilt kits featuring Petalush are available in the Treeline Quilting shop. The kits include the fabrics for the quilt top and binding along with the Fat Quarters by the Dozen book. Backing fabric is not included.

For now, though, this one gets to hang around as a shop sample.

Eventually, it’s going home with the person responsible for me ordering Petalush in the first place.