Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden

My last attempt to load the photos obviously failed, but my DD from D.C. has been visiting and while here she is trying to teach me how to upload the photos .... after she first figures it out for herself.  So here I go again ......

Back to the Butterfly Garden project that I have been slowly working on.  My cousin, Cathy, and I both fell in love with this design and decided to do it together.  I chose it ... well, first because it is gorgeous .... and at then, because I was looking for a project I could pick up and work on by hand on days that I am unable to sit at the machine for very long.

After piecing   the individual nine blocks together I had 9 small blocks to make EACH Big Block (BB) square ....  81 small blocks  = 9 BB ....  just sound of that number makes me tired.  I did not realize until I wrote this truly how much prep work went into the start of the quilt. 

This is one BB.  Another reason I chose this quilt was to practice my appliqué technique.  I used to make a lot of appliqué quilts but have not done so in many years.  I stuffed the flower centers and butterfly body for a tarpunto effect.  Here is some detail on it ....

This next clip is a close up on the embroidery.  I love how there is such variety of handwork to do on this 

quilt.  I began to get even more creative on this block and added some beads to the butterfly wings.

Big Block #3 is almost finished .... so I almost have 3 out 9 BBs completed.  

If you look closely below, in the small light blue square you will see buttons instead of the original design's embroidered flowers.  They don't show up too well in the pix ..... it would help if I cropped the pix better ..... but, oh well, that is another lesson.

 My cousin is doing her BG Quilt in 30s fabrics and it too looks very pretty but also very different.    I have  seen many other color combos with this design on the internet.  All of them are gorgeous!   It is inspiring to see how each individual interprets the same design.  The variety of  color combos everyone has is amazing.  It is part of what I love about quilting ... such individuality and all so pretty.

One day this will hang on my living room wall behind the couch.  I have a lot of  
dark  brown in that room so this will set it off nicely.  Brown and aqua is just one
of my favorite color combinations ..... as is purple and green or yellow ... oh, and
I love red and aqua also.  Do you have fav color combos that you repeatedly
lean towards in your creative process?


Would love to hear from you ...... Love and hugs with happy stitches.