Cream Lace Crochet Bed Cover Pattern with Red 3D Tulip Flowers

This cover feels like a quiet garden that has been laid across a bed. The ground is soft cream lace, made of small daisy squares joined into one big sheet, and on top of the lace sits a field of large 3D flowers. Each flower has a pointed cream petal in front, a ribbed red leaf behind it and a crown of five cream fans around the top, and all of it rests on a round red base with a green rim. From a distance the red and green look like little slices of watermelon, and up close they look like tulips opening in the sun.

The lace ground is built from 49 squares, and each square is 12 inches across. Every square starts at a little eight-petal daisy in the center, and the rounds grow outward into a square of open net with a firm single crochet edge. I chose size 5 cotton and a 2.25 mm hook for the ground, which gives a lace that is open enough to show the flowers off but strong enough to hang from the side of a bed. The squares are joined with a slip stitch seam, so the lace reads as one piece.

The flowers are made on their own, in a thicker cotton, and sewn on afterwards. That is the secret of this design. You can make a flower while a lace square dries after blocking, and you can see right away how the finished cover will look. There are 42 flowers on the cover, set in a grid of 7 columns and 6 rows. The 7 columns include the two side drops, so the flowers continue over the edge of the mattress, just as they do in the photo, and every flower points toward the foot of the bed. The last row of squares, at the foot, is plain lace.

The finished cover measures about 84 by 84 inches. The top of the bed is covered by 5 columns and 6 rows, and the side drops and the foot drop add 12 inches each. The head end is left open, because the pillows hide it. A scalloped lace edge, made of 168 little shells with a picot on top of each one, runs along both sides and across the foot. It is soft and rounded, and it moves a little when you walk past the bed.

A cover like this deserves a matching set, and the photo shows one. I replaced every fabric pillow with a crochet one. Two red pillows, textured and ruffled, echo the red centers of the flowers. Two cream lace pillows with ruffles sit behind them, and one cream lace pillow with a single tulip flower in the middle sits in front, in the place of the embroidered one. Everything on the bed is crochet, and every color comes from the cover.

This is an intermediate pattern with a lot of repeats. The lace squares use only chains, double crochets and single crochets. The flowers need some shaping, with increases, fans and a little sewing, but each piece is small and quick. Allow about 7 to 9 months of evenings for the whole cover. If you make one lace square and one flower first, you will know the whole pattern, because everything after that is the same again.

I love this cover because it is both delicate and bold. The cream lace is as light as a tablecloth, and the red flowers are the kind of color you notice from across the room. Together they look calm and festive at the same time. I can see it on a bed in summer with the window open, or in December with a candle on the nightstand, and I think it would look right in both.

I love the two speeds of the project. The lace squares are slow and steady, a repeat you can work while you talk or watch a film. The flowers are the fun part. Each one grows from a tiny disc into a small sculpture, and when you sew the crown and the pointed petal onto the base, it suddenly looks like a real flower. I like to make one flower after every second square, as a reward.

I love how forgiving the build is. If one flower comes out a little taller than the others, nobody will notice, because each flower sits in its own square of lace. If one square is a quarter of an inch off, blocking will fix it. And because the flowers are sewn on at the end, you can lay them out on the finished lace, move them around and stand back before you take a single stitch. Here is what I enjoy most about this design:

• Lace squares that give a small win every time
• Flowers that look like real tulips
• Pieces you can make in any order
• A scalloped edge that frames the whole cover

I love the colors too. Cream, red and a thin line of green is a very classic combination, and it works in a hundred different rooms. The green rim around each red base is a small detail, but it is the thing that makes the flower look finished. It reminds me of the leaves at the base of a real tulip, and it ties the cover to the plants in the room.

This is also a cover that can be passed down. Cotton lace gets softer with every wash, and the 3D flowers are sewn on firmly, so they last. I think of a wedding gift, a housewarming gift or a cover that comes out for family visits. If you make it, stitch a small label inside one corner with your name and the year, and the next person to own it will know who made it.

Finally, I love the moment when the last flower is sewn on. You spread the cover over the bed, the lace falls into soft folds, and the flowers line up in their rows like a garden after rain. You will have spent months on it, and you will see every evening of those months in it. That is a very special feeling, and I hope you get to have it.

One more thing I love is how the cover photographs. The raised flowers throw small shadows onto the lace, so the pattern changes through the day, soft in the morning and deeper in the evening lamplight.

Cream and red is the classic version, but the design is friendly to any palette. For a cool, quiet room, try ivory lace with dusty blue flowers, a silver-gray rim and a pale gray leaf. For a warm autumn bed, use cream lace with rust flowers, a golden-yellow base and an olive rim. For a sweet nursery or a girl's room, try white lace with soft pink flowers and a sage-green rim. For a bold winter bed, use ivory lace with deep burgundy flowers and a dark pine rim. Keep the same flower colors in every flower, so the garden looks even.

The squares are 12 inches, so every size is easy to count. These are the grids I suggest, written as columns by rows, with the foot row always plain lace:

• Twin: 5 columns by 7 rows, 35 squares, 30 flowers, about 60 by 84 inches
• Full: 6 columns by 7 rows, 42 squares, 36 flowers, about 72 by 84 inches
• Queen: 7 columns by 7 rows, 49 squares, 42 flowers, about 84 by 84 inches (as written)
• King: 8 columns by 7 rows, 56 squares, 48 flowers, about 96 by 84 inches

The cover in the photo falls almost to the floor. If your bed is high, or you like a long drop, add one more column down each side and one more row at the foot. A queen then becomes 9 columns by 8 rows, which is 72 squares, with 54 flowers on the first six rows and plain lace on the last two. That cover measures about 108 by 96 inches, so plan to wash it in a bathtub, and ask a helper to lift it.

A smaller version makes a lovely throw. Join 4 columns by 5 rows, 20 squares, for a throw of about 48 by 60 inches, put a flower on every square and work the scalloped edge on all four sides. You can also join 7 squares in one row for a table runner or a bed runner of about 12 by 84 inches, with a flower on every second square. Both are good ways to try the pattern before you commit to the whole cover.

For a baby, make only the lace squares, 3 columns by 3 rows, for a blanket of about 36 by 36 inches in soft washable cotton, and leave off the 3D flowers and the picots. Raised flowers can be pulled and put into a mouth, and picots can catch small fingers. If you want a flower, make one flat, on a single square, and sew it with many small stitches. A baby must never sleep under a lace blanket, so use it for play and for cuddles.

The pillows are a project of their own. A single lace square with one flower and a ruffle makes a lovely 12 inch cushion, and it is the best way to test the pattern before you start the cover. You can also change the red pillows to match your new palette, so that the pillows always repeat the color of the flower bases.

The pattern uses size 5 cotton for the lace and worsted cotton for the flowers. For a finer lace, use size 10 thread and a 1.5 mm hook for the squares. They will shrink to about 9 inches, so a queen needs 9 columns by 9 rows. For a quicker cover, use worsted cotton and a 3.5 mm hook for the lace too, stop each square a few rounds early, and measure. If the scalloped edge is too much for you, a plain single crochet edge or a simple picot edge also looks very good. Always make a test square first.