Sunday 17 October 2021

Purple Butterflies

I found this post sitting as a draft in my blog post list.  It has been waiting since 9th August 2020 to get its time to show off, simply because I hadn't taken a photo of the finished quilt!  Yes, I could have back-dated the post so that it would go in chronological order of quilt finishes, but then I decided to publish it here and now so that Purple Butterflies can have it's own time to shine.

Back in January 2017, I wrote that I had stopped working on this project 2 years earlier because I didn't like the applique thread I had chosen as it was too light.  I didn't realise at the time that it would take me another 2 years to find the right thread for the applique.  Turns out, purples are really hard to match!

Butterflies fused in place, but not sewn.

In March of 2017 we moved house to another part of the State and, you guessed it, this project was once again packed away.  Then, finally, in February 2019, I was finally able to start stitching down the applique.  I completed this task in April 2019.

Ready to get finished, with binding, backing,
 quilting and applique threads all together.

I used a beautiful dark, dark purple rayon 100wt thread, which flowed so smoothly through my little travel machine.  The stitch used was buttonhole at 2.0 x 2.0 so that I could get around some of those little circles.

Packed away again, for whatever reason, this was finally quilted.  I used my favourite tumbling hearts/leaves all over design with variegated pastel purple 50wt thread.


Seriously, this quilt, was determined to not be finished - I had to purchase some new fabric for the binding because the previous one was made TOO SHORT and I had no fabric left!!!  Arrgghhh......!!

In a stroke of good fortune, I found a fabric for the binding which matched so much better than the original fabric.  I think it was meant to be.

One single, extra butterfly was appliqued onto the backing.  She was one too many for the front, so now gets to shine on her own.  

Backing onto front peek.

The alphabet backing fabric has the most perfect colours for matching the front.

TA DA.....  here is the finished quilt.  Unfortunately the fold lines are showing, but now it's been refolded to give those creases a chance to relax.


 For a quilt that had so many issues with the making, it has turned out so soft and pretty.   I am super pleased with how this quilt turned out.  I guess the seemingly difficult ones do turn out the best!

2 comments:

ButterZ said...

So good to see a post from you Andrea. This is a beautiful quilt.
Are you going to the Bright retreat next month.

swooze said...

It’s super pretty!