My Dahlia Quilt

This quilt has been done for awhile but I haven't yet shared it here with you!  If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen me working on these EPP Dahlia blocks over the past couple of years.

From start to finish this was about a two-year project, although I did set it aside for awhile to work on other things.  

The flowers are all pieced using english paper piecing techniques.  I tried not to rush this project - I really wanted to take my time on it and just enjoy choosing fabrics and piecing each block.

Each flower uses two different prints for the petals and a contrasting print for the center.  I tried not to repeat any print in the quilt so it would have a great scrappy feel too it.  But I also stayed within the coral / yellow / green families so that it would feel coordinated and not quite as crazy as a full-on scrappy quilt might.

I knew this would be a longer project so right in the beginning I did a fabric pull and gathered any prints I thought might work.  

They lived in this basket (isn't it pretty?) and it made it much faster and easier to grab the prints to use for a flower without having to go through everything in my closet each time.  

I admit...there are a couple flowers that I feel have a bit too much contrast between the two petal prints, but that just adds to the overall character of the finished quilt, right?

After appliqueing each flower to a background square (Moda Bella 98), I added some green corner triangles to each block.  I felt like it needed more green in the quilt, and I like that the green corners also help tie the blocks to one another as well.  

Edited to add:  the background squares are cut at 10.5" square, and the corner flip triangles are cut at 2.5" square.

For the backing I used a coordinating solid yellow, and I quilted it with a longarm design called Soho.

To keep with the scrappy feel of the quilt I went with a green scrappy binding and I love how it looks!  

If you're a fan of scrappy bindings, here's a tip for you - 

As I'm binding quilts, if I have any binding left over I'll toss it in a special bin I keep just for binding scraps.  Then when I need a scrappy binding I can dig through that bin and usually I'm able to find what I need.  And that was the case with this quilt - it was SO nice to be able to just grab them and sew.  I didn't need to pull out any FQ or yardage to cut binding strips.  This binding scraps bin is a great place to toss unused jelly roll strips too!

Quilt details:
50" x 60"
Pattern: EPP Dahlias (my own version using this EPP Starter Set**)
Fabric: Coral, Yellow, Green prints from my stash and scrap bins
Quilting: Soho (edge to edge computerized design)


**Edited to add: there's another version of this kit now called "Bring Me Sunshine" by Sue Daley. Both the Playing with Paper pack 43 and Bring Me Sunshine will make this quilt. 

**This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) when purchases are made through links found in this post.