Aurifil’s wildly popular series, Color Builders, is back for another year, and we are thrilled to be offering it here at String & Story! As we go along, we are offering videos and blogs as support for our subscribers to confidently make these appliqué blocks each month as well as quilt them into a beautiful finished product. Let’s get started with our first pattern: Frangipani!

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This year’s Aurifil Color Builders block of the month, Flora, is designed and developed by Aurifil’s own Kate Brennan in partnership with graphic designer Christina Weisbard. Patterns are centered around flora-themed appliqué, allowing each featured monthly plant to take center stage. Flora is a celebration of Aurifil’s variegated thread. Aurifil produces 36 variegated thread colors, threads that contain multiple colors or multiple shades of one color. Twenty-four of these shades are represented in the 2022 program.

Our first featured plant is Frangipani, also known as the Hawaiian Lei Flower. It grows as a shrub or tree in Mexico & Central America, and has been used as an anti-inflammatory.

I am a student of appliqué right along with many of the Quilting Rockstars this year, and Frangipani is my first full, start-to-finish appliqué project. You can catch all of the videos of me working on my blocks inside the free Quilting Rockstars Facebook Group. It’s also a great place to ask questions if you’re new to appliqué or free motion quilting!

Video: Flora BOM Kickoff

Quilting Plans for Frangipani

Important, quilty note: If you’re waiting to put your block of the month together into a sampler, then you probably don’t need quilting plans yet. But, it’s always fun to start planning!

Let’s take a look at the steps I took to finish my block:

First, in between fusing my appliqué and quilting, I “painted” my raw edges with thread using Barb Persing’s method. If you’re not familiar, be sure to download her free workbook here. Remember to put freezer paper or another stabilizer under your block for edge painting!

Then, after basting, it’s time to quilt. With these appliqué blocks, the flower or plant is the star of the show, so I only chose a background fill motif. I started by stitching in the “ditch” around the flowers and leaves to help them “pop” from the background then began to quilt the negative space.

Plan 1 is a simple meander— adding gentle texture to the background so the flower shines

Plan 2 multiplies the flower shape in thread, giving the idea of a whole bush or tree of blooms

Plan 3 uses McTavishing for maximum texture contrast between the negative space and the puffy applique.

In all three instances, it’s important to realize that quilting with Aurifil 50 wt creates a much finer line than my digital drawings!

To watch me quilt this block, check out this video in the Quilting Rockstars Facebook Group.

Resources

I will continue writing blogs with quilting plan ideas for each of the Flora blocks. Here are some other resources you may enjoy as well:

• Subscribe to Aurifil Color Builders

• Quilting Rockstar Band Camp: Appliqué Edition — 4 hours of high quality fusible appliqué education on demand from multiple instructors

• Blog: Basic Tips for Quilting Appliqué

• Free Download: Confident FMQ Workbook