We are so excited to tell you about our newest release – Saguaro! This is our next release in the Everyday Appliqué series! We like fun, quirky appliqué that is also simple and graphically appealing – often with a sense of humor! Saguaro is all of these things!
Take a drive through the Arizona countryside and you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of majestic saguaros. This drive from Phoenix to Prescott to speak at a quilt guild a few years back was the inspiration for Saguaro. Being a midwestern girl, the view was nothing I’d ever seen before – I was astounded. I had to commemorate it in a quilt!
Saguaro is a 60″ x 78″ throw quilt, but you can add or subtract as many blocks as you want until you get to the perfect size – 3 suns and 9 saguaros would make a darling baby quilt!
Jenifer’s Thought on the Saguaro Design
I looked at several possible placements for the sun but nothing looked right. That’s when I got the idea to put a sun at the top of each column. I was a little unsure of this because there is only one sun after all! But in the end, I decided that this is a quilt, not a reflection of reality! I can put 5 suns on it if I want!
Normally we like to use a turned-edge appliqué, but sometimes fusing is the right solution, especially for tight curves and small pieces. And it’s okay to mix and match appliqué techniques within one quilt! Here the suns are fused and the cacti and flowers are turned edge and stitched with invisible thread and a zigzag stitch. (Look at that cute flower! Doesn’t it look like a little sombrero on top of the cactus!?)
Fabric selection was tricky with this pattern. Not all prints we auditioned looked the best. In the end we went with the vibrant red, orange, and yellow solids that look like a hot day in the desert. These solids are from Paintbrush Studio. Above is an early colorway idea that didn’t make the cut, but pastel solids on gray prints could make an adorable baby quilt!
Trisch is the quilter at Everyday Stitches! I really like how she did the prickly parts of the cacti, very cute. She is a very creative quilter!
Click here to purchase Saguaro paper pattern.
Click here to purchase Saguaro PDF download.