Secret Garden Table Topper

We decided it was time again for another project from the Simply Color books. And of course, i's GREEN. For the month of March, any product with GREEN (like the cover of the book) is 15% off. So get ready for spring now!

We decided to do something a bit different with the project we chose--instead of making the full quilt, we took a quarter of the Secret Garden quilt and made a table topper instead. 

This modified project is 36" square. Original Quilt measures 72" square finished. 

For this project you will need, background fabric, different solid green fabrics or green ombre fabric, a fusible interfacing of your choice, template plastic, and matching thread. 

From the book, you will create a Leaf template out of template plastic. For this project, you will draw 20 leaves onto the wrong side of your chosen green fabrics. Cut at least 1/2" around the drawn line of each leaf appliqué. 

Lay a leaf applique, right side down, on top of a rectangle of interfacing. The fusible side of the interfacing should be facing up.

Stitch along the drawn line on the leaf appliqué, beginning with a backstitch. When you reach a corner, put your needle in the down position, pivot, and continue sewing until you reach your starting point.   

 Trim around the leaf, leaving at least an 1/8" seam allowance. Carefully clip curved edges, and clip off the pointed ends. Do not clip too close to the stitched line.  

 Gently pull the interfacing away from the fabric and make a slit in the middle of the interfacing, then gently turn the entire leaf inside out. Use a pin or chopstick to push out the points. Repeat for all 20 leaves. 

 Fold the background square in half diagonally and finger press a crease. 

Eyeballing the first two leaves, place a point on the creased line. Keep the sides parallel to the edges and 1" from the edge. Place the middle leaves just barely touching the first two leaves, points on the creased line. Then place the last leaf in between the middle leaves, points on the line still. Pin all the leaf appliqués in place. 

Once you have the leaves in the correct place, iron the leaf appliqués onto the background. A dry heat is best. If you are worried about getting any fusible onto your iron, we recommend to use an appliqué pressing sheet to place onto the leaves and pressing with the iron on top. 

Applique by hand or machine to attach your leaf shapes. Use thread that is close the the same color of the leaves. Repeat these steps three more times for four similar squares. Arrange the blocks as shown in the next picture and sew them together. 

 To finish the topper, layer with batting and backing fabric, baste, and quilt as desired. Attach the binding and finish!

 This makes both a beautiful quilt or topper, whichever you chose to make. Detailed instructions and more patterns featuring the color green can be found in the book, Simply Color GREEN, by Vanessa Christenson from Lucky Spool publishing. 

You can find this book and more at www.StitchinPost.com 

 Happy Quilting!