Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt #4 – Harebell

 As the quilt club members assembled for their weekly meeting they heard the strains of “Blue Bells of Scotland.” That gave them the flower of the day. It was Jeannie’s turn to make the block and she exclaimed in pleasure over the dainty blue bells which Nancy had designed. She said she could almost see them swaying on their slender stems in the breeze among the grasses and flowers.

The first thing the members did was to take the drawing as given in today’s paper, paste it on light weight cardboard or tag board. The sheet was dried under weight. Then the patterns of the various parts were cut out.

The bells were laid on Peter Pan of a heavenly blue. Each bell was cut according to pattern, allowing one quarter-inch on all edges for turning in.

The leaves were cut in same fashion from green. The stems were laid on a bias strip of green. They were cut twice the width of drawing. The raw edges were folded back to meet at centre of strip and basted in place.

The flower and leaf edges were turned and basted, also. Dotted line on pattern Indicates that stem is sewed on top of leaf.

Dorothy sewed hers on without a preliminary turning in of edge. She basted them in place and then sewed them with invisible slanting stitches, turning in as she sewed. The less experienced members preferred the first method.

They all agreed that It was wisest to have the basket handle appliqued before placing the flowers and leaves in place as shown in small Insert in today’s paper.

As they stitched Nancy told them this flower was called St. George’s flower since it was in blossom on his day, April 23, and since its blue was like the ocean of which he was the patron saint.

Its blue is said to stand for purity. One other delightfully whimsical tale says “it is a fairy flower sending silver music when good fairies ring their chimes for vagrant butterflies.” 

Edmonton Journal
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada22 Dec 1928, Sat  •  Page 22

Last week – The Rose

Next week – The California Poppy