Shoo Fly Garden Quilt Tutorial

Months before I finished the EPP portion of my Hexie Rainbow quilt, I started thinking about what would be my next EPP project. I knew I didn't want to be without one, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I considered buying a pattern from Jodi at Tales of Cloth (she has some beautiful ones!), but ultimately I decided I wanted to stick with hexies, but play with ones that were smaller than the 1" size I used for the Hexie Rainbow. 

I have to say, ½" hexies are so cute!

Once I settled on the ½" hexies, I needed a plan for them. I remembered the Flowers for Eleni quilt Jodi created with donated hexie flowers back in 2015 (including two flowers from me). There was something about the hexie flowers appliquéd to a background square that I loved, and I've wanted to do something similar ever since. 

I played in EQ8 with some different options. Sashing or no sashing? Offset blocks or straight set or on point? Eventually I settled on this, with shoo fly blocks formed by the stitch-and-flip corners and the cornerstones of the sashing. Ignore the one corner of the block that was added a little wonky and then repeated across the whole quilt; I haven't bothered to go back and fix it, but all the corners will be straight in the quilt. 

My quilt will finish at 54" x 69" and will require 154 hexie flowers. That's 1,078 hexies hand stitched into flowers, then hand stitched to their background squares, so I think I'm good for a travel project for a while 😊 I love having a project to take with me when we're driving around the province or traveling anywhere else, and I don't want to have to keep coming up with a new one, so a multi-year hand stitching project suits me just fine.

I have a few rules for myself as I make the blocks:

1. All the flowers will have yellow centers, and those fabrics will be repeated.

2. That means no yellow flowers.

3. No black flowers, since the shoo fly 'blocks' will be solid black. All other colours are fair game.

4. Flowers can be prints or solids.

5. All the hexies for a flower's petals are made from the same fabric.

6. I'm trying not to repeat fabrics for the flower petals, though it's possible I'll lose track of what I've already used and I'm not going to stress about it if something sneaks in for a second flower.

7. The backgrounds will be solid white and white-on-white prints.

I've been stitching flowers for a few months now and I have 31 made. 

I've also stitched some to their background squares and added the black stitch-and-flip corners so I could get an idea how they'd look together. Even without the sashing, I like where this is going!

For now, they're all hanging out on the side of my design wall, keeping my Kitchen Party blocks company. I love watching the collection grow!

Want to make a Shoo Fly Garden quilt of your own? Here's how!

For each block, you'll need:

• scraps for the flower petal hexies and the flower center hexie
• ½" hexie papers (see below for mine)
• 4 ½" square of white solid or tone-on-tone print
• 4 1 ½" squares of black solid
• thread to match your hexies
• thread or glue for basting the hexies
• small pins (optional, but very helpful)

Make a block

1. Print and cut out the hexie papers. Be sure to print at 'actual size' or '100% scaling'. The sides of the hexies should measure exactly ½".

2. Pin the hexie papers to the wrong side of your fabric scraps, leaving enough room between them for the seam allowance. A ¼" seam allowance looks huge compared to the ½" hexie paper, but you still need that full ¼" seam allowance. I love these tiny Clover applique pins for this, especially with the ½" hexies.

3. Cut out the fabric hexies. This doesn't need to be precise, as long as you have a good seam allowance. Because they're so small, they're easy to cut with scissors, which is what I've been doing. You need 6 for the flower petals and 1 for the flower center.

4. Thread baste or glue baste the hexies. I prefer to thread baste, only going through the fabric, not the papers. I have a tutorial on how to prepare shapes for English Paper Piecing you can check out if you've never done it before.

5. Once your hexies are all basted, stitch the flower together using a thread that blends with your fabric. I prefer to use a whip stitch, but you can also try the flat back method of stitching EPP to see what you prefer. Once the flower is stitched, remove the papers.

6. Fold the background square in half horizontally and vertically and finger press it to create creases. Using the creases to help, center the flower on the background square and pin it in place.

7. Again using a thread that blends with the fabric of your flower, stitch the flower to the background. I love the ladder stitch for this because it's almost completely invisible. You could also stitch them by machine if you prefer.

8. For the stitch-and-flip corners, you can draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the black 1 ½" squares or you can eyeball it, which is what I've been doing. Normally I draw the lines, but these squares are small enough I'm comfortable winging it. Place a black square on the corner of the background square as shown and stitch from corner to corner.

9. Repeat for the other three corners.

10. Trim off the excess, leaving a ¼" seam allowance. 

11. Press the black triangles open. You have a finished block! Now go make a whole bunch more 😂

To make a quilt top

I don't have any pictures of this part because it's going to be quite a while yet before I get there!

1. Once you have all your blocks made, lay them out in whatever size layout you planned. Mine will be 11 x 14 (eventually). Here's how it would look for a 9 x 9 (44" square) baby quilt.

2. Cut your sashing and cornerstones.

• Sashing - 1 ½" x 4 ½" rectangles
• Cornerstones 1 ½" squares

3. Stitch the blocks, sashing, and cornerstones together into rows. Press the seams either open or towards the sashing.

4. Stitch the rows together to complete the quilt top.

If you make a Shoo Fly Garden block (or blocks), I'd love to see! Please tag me if you share it on social media or you can send me an email at devotedquilter@gmail.com.

My Hexie Rainbow quilt top took 8 years to make. I wonder how long my Shoo Fly Garden top will take!