Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt #15 – Canterbury Bells

When the group of Nancy Page quilt club were making the blue bells of Scotland for an earlier basket block there had been much talk of another bell flower – the Canterbury bells. They had decided that if that flower came into the pattern they would use pale lavender or pink for these flowers. The real Canterbury flower often comes in a bluish lavender but they were afraid they might not be able to get that shade in a fast colored gingham.

When they saw the Canterbury bells laid out for them in Belle’s home they noticed, the merry little fling which the bells had. This had been missing in the blue bells of Scotland. Now that they were more accustomed to appliqueing they found this easier to do than they would have when they were newer at the Job.

They pasted pattern as given today on light weight cardboard or tag board and dried it under pressure. In the meantime some of them finished appliqueing the basket handle on the white triangle which was pieced to the buff and white pieced basket.

When the pattern was dry they cut it into pieces with sharp scissors. The flowers were all drawn from same pattern, so one flower served for all four as a pattern.

They made the stem a continuous piece of bias material. They appliqued the bells over the edge of stem, not attempting to cut It with the curves taken out as it appears in the finished picture. This stem was cut twice as wide as pattern and raw edges were folded back until they met at under side. Then they were basted and pressed.

The leaves and flowers were cut from patterns allowing one-quarter inch for turning under on all sides. When the piece was ready they were pinned in place according to insert pattern and then appliqued with fine slanting invisible hemming stitches.

Edmonton Journal
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada09 Mar 1929, Sat  •  Page 35

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Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt