A Flower Appliqué Pillow with Spring’s In Town + Appliqué Tips for Success

With winter in full swing, it’s hard not to think about the sunshine and spring flowers ahead! Sandy Gervais’ Spring’s In Town is the perfect fabric collection to welcome those springtime colors into our sewing rooms, even when it’s still dreary outside!

The pastel yellows, pinks, greens, and blues lent perfectly to a delicate appliqué quilted pillow. This pillow, along with other fun appliqué projects, is in The Vintage Flower Sampler Quilt book which can be found here.

I chose the Spring’s In Town Flower Toss in Powder and Bouquets in Sky as my background fabrics. These beautiful light blues allowed the appliqué pieces to really pop! The Spring’s In Town Diamonds in Green made the perfect stems and vines, while the different blushes and corals made beautiful flower petals. Finally, I chose the Spring’s In Town Main in Sunshine as my pillow backing. All of the fabrics in this collection make such a fresh bouquet of colors!

With my colors chosen, I moved forward with the appliqué process. I like to use the spray starch method of appliqué, rather than the needle-turn method. While we all have our favorite sewing techniques, I thought I would give a few tips to make this technique a little easier! My first tip is to use a very sparse seam allowance. The smaller the seam allowance, the smoother the appliqué curves will be when you starch them to the templates! I like to use a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance when cutting out my pieces in case they fray a little when taking them off of the templates after starching.

My next tip is to use small amounts of glue (I use a generic craft bond glue) and tack the appliqué pieces in place before you start to sew them down. In order to not use too much glue- which can cause issues with the needle going through the fabric- I put the tiniest dot of glue and then quickly iron it set. Doing this avoids pesky pins and allows you to fully relax without missing and stray pieces. 

Finally, I cannot stress enough how much cleaner your appliqué will look if you match the thread to the top fabric you are sewing down. Your stitches will be invisible even if you are still practicing your hand appliqué skills!

I hope you enjoy sewing with the Spring’s In Town collection as much as I did! If you have never tried appliqué before, I encourage you to give it a go and I hope my tips are helpful! If you have any questions, send me a message on Instagram at @sarabquilts. Enjoy and happy sewing!

Sara Brown