The Lily Blocks Had Other Ideas

One of the things I love most about quilting is that sometimes the project has ideas of its own.

This week, I spent more time solving design puzzles than sewing—and honestly, that's one of my favorite parts of the process.

For the memorial wall hanging I've been working on, I wanted to include custom lily flower blocks. The lilies weren't pulled from an existing pattern. I designed them in EQ8 specifically for this project, saved multiple versions along the way, and slowly refined them until they felt right.

Once the design was finalized, it was time to see whether the blocks would actually work in fabric.

For these first test blocks, I pulled from several fabrics I'd already been auditioning for the project, including Fluidity precuts and a few favorites I had set aside specifically for the lilies.

The first lily came together exactly as planned.

At least, that's what I thought.

The pink lily thought it was finished. I was less convinced.

My original plan was to applique both the stems and leaves after the flower blocks were sewn. It seemed simple enough. Finish the flowers now and figure out the appliqué later.

Future Tamera's problem.

Then I made the next lily.

And somewhere between pressing seams and staring at the design wall, I started wondering if I could piece the stem directly into the block instead of adding it as appliqué later.

Of course, once that thought entered my head, there was no getting rid of it.

The orange lily became my first experiment.

To my surprise, the pieced stem worked.

Then I made a blue version and liked it even more.

By the time the third lily was on the design wall, the decision was made.

The stems were staying.

Which brings us back to the pink lily.

The challenge is that the pink lily had already been sewn according to the original plan. Before I could add a pieced stem, I had to figure out exactly how much of the block needed to come apart so I could rebuild it with the new design.

That's when I realized Future Tamera had inherited a problem from Past Tamera.

By the time the orange and blue lilies were finished, I knew the pieced stems were staying. The only problem was that the pink lily had already been sewn using the original plan.

The leaves will still be appliqued, but the stems are officially part of the block now.

Which means Jack the Ripper has been invited back to the sewing table. (If you missed that joke in sewing classes, that's the name of my seam ripper.) 😄

We'll see how much of the pink lily needs to come apart before it can become the flower it was apparently meant to be all along.

Because sometimes the quilt has ideas of its own.

And apparently, these lily blocks do too. 🌸