Block #7 ~ Nasturtium
Perhaps it was the color of the sunset sky, Perhaps it was the coming chill of snow and whiteness, perhaps it was just homesickness for the spicy tang of nasturtiums, but whatever it was Nancy found herself drawing a nasturtium for the seventh flower block in the garden bouquet quilt.
Her club members loved it. “I’m so glad you have planned to make one of those for I have just a scrap of red and yellow print that I want to use.”
Nancy told her to be sure that the scrap was color fast. Cora assured her it was for she had used some of it for beach pyjamas last summer, and land knows they had had plenty of sun and water.
The long point of the flower had best be made of yellow material. Of course, the leaves and stem are green. And the stem is made from bias tape. The members had made the lower half of the diamond block when they pieced the urn. They had seamed this to the upper white triangle cut 17-1/2 by 12-1/2 by 12-1/2.
They had made the two birds which perch on either side of the flower. Sometimes the members had difficulty getting the flower and the birds on the block. In some blocks Nancy suggests that the stem be lengthened slightly. This brings the flower head up farther in the triangle point and gets it out of the way of the birds. She told the members to use their own judgment.
The first thing the members did when they received this pattern was to cut it, with its accompanying directions, from the paper.
Then they traced the flower lightly on the upper triangle of white. This gave them an outline to follow when they were appliqueing the flower later.
Next they made another tracing of the design onto a piece of light weight cardboard. This they cut into its separate pieces so they had patterns to use for cutting.
The original pattern was now put for safe keeping in the Nancy Page quilt scrap book.
Laying the cardboard patterns onto the cloth the pieces were cut, making a quarter-inch allowance on all sides for turning under raw edges. These were basted and pressed.
Then the pieces were pinned and basted in place and appliqued.
Nancy advised the use of the slanting, invisible hemming stitch. Had any member wanted to buttonhole the edges she would cut all the pieces the exact size as given. No raw edges are turned under when pieces are buttonholed.
Nancy might have colored the space within the traced outlines on the white triangle with colored crayon, pressing the color in by using a hot iron after the crayon has been laid on. Or, she might have made the flower in outline stitch.
The dark spot in the center is made with satin embroidery stitch, using fast color embroidery cotton.
The dotted lines in some of the petals indicate the overlapping of one petal over another. The petals are cut on dotted lines and covered by upper petals.
“Garden Bouquet Quilt, Block #7, Nasturtium” Newspapers.com, Edmonton Journal, January 9, 1932, https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-garden-bouquet-quilt-b/161758318/
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