Pansy Patch Quilt Pattern - The Sprout Version

By now you probably know how the new Pansy Patch quilt pattern includes three different colorways. So far I’ve only shown off Modern versions…but today it’s time to give the Patchwork colorway its day in the sun!

The Pansy Patch quilt pattern so far

When I started designing the Pansy Patch quilt pattern, I definitely imagined it in the Modern colorway first…colorful flowers, stems and leaves in a different color, and a solid background. While it took a while to finalize the actual pull, I pretty much always imagined something like the dreamy Forget-Me-Not version. (And later I came up with the bold Cover version, also using the Modern colorway.)

As I played around with other color possibilities, I wondered how Pansy Patch would look in a two-color version. Super great, it turns out! That became the Traditional colorway (which I’ll be sharing more about in a week or two.).

I had planned to stick to those two options, but I couldn’t seem to stop noodling on more possibilities. Like…what if I used fat quarters for the background too? I’ve done something similar with my Christmas Joy quilt pattern several times (including the Lucky Loom version and the Gayle Lorraine version), and I always love how it turns out. It offers a little bit more color and impact than what you see in the Modern version where there is only one background color and smaller bits of the other colors. I wanted a version of the pattern that showed off bigger portions of color with the silhouette of the flower shape rather than individually colored flower pieces. So I started mocking up a new variant of Pansy Patch…and lo and behold, I fell in love!

I knew the Patchwork version (as I started calling it) had to be an official colorway, and not just a pattern hack. In fact, as I shared in our introduction to Pansy Patch, I loved this new color-way so much that I wanted to be thoughtful about how the finished block looked. I made sure the pattern wouldn’t need any sashing (which meant each block needed built-in negative space), and I centered the floral motif in each quilt block.

This is the most robust Lo & Behold pattern we've ever created. So much so that at one point it felt like it was busting at the seams with too many sizes and too many color-ways. We almost nixed this Patchwork version because it felt like a bit of an outlier to the other two versions. But I kept telling myself that that's why I liked it so much. It provided such a different look that I was personally so excited to bring it to life.

So even though I hadn’t originally planned on the Patchwork version at all, it really influenced the final look of Pansy Patch!

And when it came time to start sewing up sample quilts, of course I had to include a Patchwork version: the Sprout quilt!

My Sprout quilt sample

I made my Sprout sample a little smaller than my first two Pansy Patch quilts. This small throw size finished at 60” x 64”, which gave me 16 blocks to play with…perfect for what I had in mind!

FABRICS

My first Pansy Patch quilt, the Forget-Me-Not version, had a nostalgic, dreamy spring vibe…but for my Patchwork sample, I wanted something that felt like true spring. Like smelling a Peony bouquet, or tasting the first berries at a farmer’s market, or watching the twitterpated scene from Bambi. That kind of Spring!

That vibe called for lots of pinks and greens. I started off with some of the fabrics I’d used in my Clover version of Ruby Sue, Blossoming and Miami Sunset. (All quilt top fabrics are Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids.)

Those gave me a nice pink and peachy base to work from. I wanted plenty of movement in this quilt, so I made sure to include a wide range of values and saturation…first in my pinks/peaches, and then in my greens. Pastel pinks and greens sit side side-by-side with deep greens and rich corals, which has the added bonus of keeping the quilt from feeling too sweet or predictable.

In the end, I used ½ yard each of these colors, with one fat quarter for the background and one for the foreground:

Blushing
Cinnamon
Eucalyptus
Fresh Aloe
Fresh Sage
Parrot
Rosemary
Sweet Macadamia

And then I used ½ yard of each of these for the background only:

Blossoming (background)
Jade Cream (background)
Miami Sunset (background)
Sprout (background)

💡

Pansy Patch and precuts

The Patchwork fabric requirements call for fat quarters, but you can also use half-yard cuts (like I did for this version) or one-yard cuts instead!

After picking my palette, it was time to mix and match! I always love this step. It’s so fun to experiment with placing the different colors next to each other and seeing how they look different side-by-side. Sometimes you end up with a combo that really surprises you!

For this pattern, "mix and match" is a little different from other patterns because there are separate Foreground fat quarters and Background fat quarters (because you can't get an equal amount of Foreground and Background pieces from each cut of fabric, so they have to be split up). This means that before you cut, you have to decide which is which, then mix and match from there. The pattern walks you through this, but if you were curious about why the fabric requirements have the Background and Foreground fat quarters, that's why. :)

Once I had my quilt blocks, I had to figure out the arrangement. I decided to go for a random look (though y’all know I love an ombre quilt), which really keeps your eyes moving over the different blocks. I also really tried to have a mix of values in my combinations. This means some blocks have more contrast than others, which is part of the magic (in my opinion) when it comes to mix and match.

I love how it turned out! It definitely reads as a spring quilt, through and through, but with enough depth and surprise to keep things interesting.

And yes, we have Sprout quilt kits in the shop!

BACKING, BINDING, AND QUILTING

With all the different blocks and colors on the quilt top, I decided to keep the quilting itself relatively simple with some straight line quilting. Our talented sample sewist, Dorathy, quilted this one with a 1” diagonal crosshatch design, using the block seams as a guide. (I included this as a quilting suggestion in the Pansy Patch pattern, so you can do it yourself!).

For my backing and binding, I went back to an Art Gallery Fabrics print I’ve used before: Wooly Three (from the Season of Tribute - Roots of Nature collection). You might recognize it from my Forest Celtic Crossing 2.0 quilts. The loose, organic feel provides such a fun contrast to the very neat and organized garden on the front of the quilt. Not to mention, it gives picnic-y vibes that are fun to highlight with this patchwork/garden inspired vibe.

It’s simple, but definitely not boring! I love how the quilting plays off the piecing…plus we used bright pink thread (Aurifil 2425, from my Heirloom thread pack) for an extra special touch!

The finished quilt has such a nice classic feel with a few modern flourishes. It’s just the springtime mood boost I was going for!

Make your own Pansy Patch quilt

Every Pansy Patch quilt I’ve made has felt so different, like its own little quilting adventure. I’ve loved each one, and I’m excited to see how you put your own personal stamp on the Pansy Patch design!

QUILT KITS

If you want to get right down to sewing, use one of our curated quilt kits! We have quilt kits for this version (the Sprout quilt kit) in the shop, along with three other color palettes:

Cover quilt kit (Modern, large throw) and matching table runner kit

Forget-Me-Not quilt kit (Modern, large throw) and matching baby quilt kit

Lava Rock quilt kit (Traditional, small throw)

DESIGN YOUR OWN

I keep saying the Pansy Patch pattern has so many possibilities…because it does! For instance, imagine mixing the two colors of the Traditional colorway with Patchwork blocks so that the foregrounds and backgrounds alternate in those two colors…

Pansy Patch quilt mockup showing alternating black and white blocks

I bet you can come up with even more ways to hack the pattern! I know I kept getting new ideas every time I played with colors, and I’d love to see what you come up with!

I’ve found the easiest way to design a fabric pull is with a digital coloring page, so we’ve put the Pansy Patch pattern on PreQuilt. You can also print off our free quilt coloring pages if that works better for you!