Butterfly Quilt

Now that the snow is melted and my laundry line is back up,  I can photograph my most recent "Butterfly Quilt" outdoors in much better lighting.  This quilt is the largest quilt I've made.  It fits a queen size bed with a very generous length to allow for a pillow tuck.  The amount draping over the side is perfect.

 This design is very simple.  They are 12" blocks; half of which are hourglass and half are four-square blocks.  Alternate them and arrange them with lighter colours together and darker colours together.  Then you've got this altered squares design which creates an illusion of larger diamonds.  I added a border, and voilà!  The fabric is from a line called Papillon designed by 3 Sisters

Here's a little closer detail of the fabric.  It's so beautiful with muted pastels and detailed butterfly sketches.   The quilting was not done by me.  This was the first time I sent a quilt to get quilted by a long arm quilter.  I sent it to Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I usually like to do everything myself but this huge quilt was going to be very difficult to quilt on my little home sewing machine.  Although it's more expensive than doing it myself, it was definitely worth it.  They really did a fabulous job and it was so quick!

The binding is completely slipstitched by hand.  This is one part of the quilt making process that I really learned to love.  It's time consuming but looks so much nicer.  I've learned to relax into it and enjoy each stitch rather than focus on just getting it done.  It took me maybe 3 or 4 days to complete the binding.

There we go!  Now Butterfly Quilt is going to the washing machine for it's annual wash!
Happy Sewing!