Spring Stitching Club

Wild Olive Spring Stitching Club: Embroidered Hexagon Lap Quilt Pattern Summary

The Wild Olive Spring Stitching Club is a downloadable PDF pattern by Mollie Johanson that guides stitchers through creating a charming lightweight lap quilt featuring hand-embroidered spring motifs set within pieced hexagon flower shapes. Originally released as a week-by-week stitchalong, the pattern is now self-paced, making it an ideal project for intermediate crafters who enjoy combining hand embroidery with quilting techniques.

What You Will Make

The finished project is a lightweight lap quilt built around a central "mini flower garden" design. The garden is composed of pieced fabric hexagons arranged into flower shapes, with hand-embroidered spring icons stitched onto linen centers placed at the heart of each flower. Larger fabric panels frame and complete the quilt top. The overall effect combines the tactile warmth of traditional English paper piecing with the delicate detail of surface embroidery, resulting in a piece that is both decorative and functional.

Techniques Used

• English Paper Piecing (EPP): Hexagons are cut from heavy paper or light card stock using the included templates, then fabric is wrapped and basted around each paper piece. This hand-sewing technique produces precise, crisp hexagon shapes that are then joined together to form the flower units central to the quilt's design.
• Hand Embroidery: Spring-themed motifs are stitched onto linen fabric panels that form the centers of the hexagon flowers. The embroidery is worked in a small 3-inch embroidery hoop for control and tension consistency.
• Quilt Assembly: Once the embroidered and pieced hexagon flower sections are complete, larger fabric panels are added to build out the full quilt top. A sewing machine is noted as optional but helpful for this stage, making the pattern accessible to those who prefer hand sewing throughout.
• Quilting and Finishing: The pattern includes instructions for layering the quilt top with optional thin cotton batting or flannel and a cotton backing, then finishing with an optional binding.

Embroidery Details

The embroidery portion of this project focuses on spring icons — seasonal motifs that bring the flower garden theme to life in the quilt's center section. Each motif is stitched individually onto linen or other solid fabric, then incorporated into the hexagon flower units. The PDF includes all embroidery patterns, with stitched examples shown on individual pattern pages as well as a consolidated print-all page at the end for convenience.

Embroidery Thread

The pattern calls for DMC embroidery floss in a carefully chosen spring palette. The specific DMC colors used by the designer are:

• DMC 801 — dark coffee brown
• DMC 992 — aquamarine
• DMC 472 — ultra light avocado green
• DMC 307 — lemon yellow
• DMC 741 — medium tangerine
• DMC 891 — dark carnation pink
• DMC 818 — baby pink
• DMC Blanc — white
• DMC 310 — black

This palette spans warm yellows and oranges, fresh greens, soft and bold pinks, neutral white and black, and a warm brown — together evoking a vibrant spring garden in bloom.

Fabric and Materials

The quilt uses a combination of linen and quilting cotton fabrics. The pattern specifies the following yardage requirements:

• Linen or other solid fabric for embroidery and accent: 1/3 yard
• Quilting cotton Color A: 1/3 yard
• Quilting cotton Color B: 1/3 yard
• Quilting cotton Color C: 1/3 yard