Extra Flowers and Butterflies

Shopping for tone-on-tone floral fabrics was immensely fun, but as usual, I was torn between the colors! How do you walk away with just two colors? Each bolt was so vivid and gorgeously printed.  Decision was impossible, so, along with the vivid red and blue, I came home to the cutting board with delightful cottons in green, yellow, pink, and violet.

Assembly line sewing was very easy for this block. I made a continual chain of sewn pieces, then cut them apart to press, making a new pile to connect the next pieces. Each step created a new pile, making the whole process simple and organized.

Within just a few hours, my cutting board held 44 blocks totally finished, pressed, and set aside. My red and blues were finished.

Next, I made 44 more green &violet blocks just for fun. They are vivid tones with smaller floral prints.  I'm not sure where I'll use my extra colors, but maybe I'll have enough blocks for some extra room decor to match the Butterfly Garden quilt when it is finished. I'm considering making some pillowcase sets that include quilted borders, some shams, or even some throw pillows.

I've decided to leave the pink and yellow fabrics as optional colors to add if I need more blocks for shading and finishing the landscape of my dream garden plans.

For the "landscape" of my garden, I'm dreaming of bunched shades of color. I want to create a natural display in a progressive rainbow as I would find in my actual flower garden. Hopefully, this garden will all be fenced in with a white tone on tone picket blocks trimmed with tone on tone green symbolizing grass. I've tried to draw my idea of a block design on graph paper. Now I'm assembling one sample block before I decide if I like the look surrounding my garden. My final step hopes to be a soft blue binding representing a summer sky.

Cultivating My Dream Butterfly Garden

As the birds singing fills the air, the smells of Spring rift toward my nostrils, and the breeze becomes warmer, my garden plants are sprouting through the soil and the buds are bursting into bright colors!

From the open window, my sewing machine can be heard joyfully buzzes through straight quarter inch seams as 7.5" squares are assembled in my cheerful hobby room.


Half of the 4" squares of tone on tone have been cornered with 3 inch squares of black on white,  or white on black. These smaller squares were pressed diagonally in half, and then sewn across a corner of the 4" colored squares. I stitched the diagonal, then stitched 1/4" from that seam. I cut between the two seams, leaving excess triangles in one pile and new 4" squares to press open and connect to another 4" unchanged floral. The change of one corner made one side of the butterfly wings.

The block swap organizer requested the favor of sending these excess triangles along with our blocks. She has high hopes of a "traveling project" with these little triangles. I imagined all sorts of projects, so it will be fun to see the purpose she decided for these.

My assembled 7.5 blocks give the appearance of fluttering butterfly wings among the flowers. All 44 gorgeous blocks have been assembled, pressed, packaged, and ready to migrate to the big Garden Butterflies Swap.


While waiting for warmer weather to return a variety of floral tones to my home, my sewing skills will be challenged with plans to construct the picket fence, trimmed with grassy green border to encompass my new Garden of Butterflies in full bloom.

"Dreams of a Garden"

I love the smells and sights of Spring and dreams of warm Summer days!

I was recently inspired to make Butterfly blocks for SWAP in a group on MSQC forum. These swaps cause extraordinary visions of finished projects to pop into my head!

So, I shop with great care for my dreamy choice fabric and purchase enough to make not only the swap blocks, but the envisioned quilt!


I've titled this new vision "Dreams of a Garden". 

I'm using tone-on-tone floral prints. 

I chose two vivid prints of red daisies and cloudy blue violets. 

My butterflies will center each block using alternate black on white and white on black fabrics.

Today will be spent at the cutting table, making a variety of squares to be pieced together to complete 7.5  inch blocks. I'm told the blocks are easily assembled, so I may even get time to spend at my sewing machine. 

The swap promises 22 other colored blocks to add, if I choose, but I won't see those until later in April. I may end up with two quilts, or one huge garden!

For the big finish, I also purchased tone-on-tone striped greens and tone-on-tone whites for the border. I know the green will give the impression of grass borders and I'm hoping with the white, I can create a picket fence for my garden.