ENGLISH PAPER PIECED GRANDMA'S FLOWER GARDEN (or a take along project made from scraps)

I have been gone to a family reunion over the long weekend.  I opted to not take my sewing machine and just take some small project that could be hand done while visiting.  Plus there are many interruptions so I wanted to be able to put down the project and pick it back up as time allowed.  I didn't get much done (sewing wise - had a great time visiting), but here are the "flowers" I did complete.

I pre-cut the fabric into manageable squares and used "re-purposed" paper (already printed on one side) for the stabilizer to sew the fabric too. All the cutting was done at home prior to the trip. I picked a spool of thread that I had on hand and just baste the fabric to the paper as the paper will come out once the "flower" is appliqued to a background block.

"Flower" from front - basted to paper and petals are whip stitched together

Flower block reverse

This is another way to use up the scraps I seem to collect  by just putting two pieces of fabric is a dark corner or box together.  I am pretty sure that my scraps multiply without any help from me :)  When I have enough flowers to make a quilt, I will applique the flowers down to a background fabric and then cut away the back enough so that I can get the paper out after pulling out the basting stitches.

These are easy to make and really good for a project that you just want to take along and do as time allows.  These are large petals (about 3" each) - I have seen them in everything from dime size to about 5" each. Find a pattern that works for your comfort and desired project size.

Fabric hexagons to baste fabric to for making petals.

I like to do English paper piecing - here is a link to a previous project:   https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2014/01/english-paper-piecing.html