I mentioned earlier the paper piecing butterfly challenge that designer and blogger, The Tartankiwi was sponsoring. Although it caused a little bit of tears and frustration, especially when it came to un-sewing long teeny stitched seams, I am excited to share with you my finished 12″ butterfly!
Made almost entirely from scraps, and I also made some adjustments to the pattern as I was going.
In the original pattern the left and right wings are not symmetrical, they have different curves and shapes. So I printed out mirrors of the side I preferred, and used those instead of the original side. I added in some extra strips because I wanted to reduce the amount of black in the wings. I also had to insert an extra seam into the centre body piece top and bottom because my green scraps weren’t large enough, or my brain not smart enough, to follow the original design. So instead there are two small angled pieces and a straight piece top and bottom, and finally there are two extra seams in the top green of the wings because once again my brain can’t cope with angles and I used too small a piece…. on both sides!
I was a little careless and let the butterfly loose in the garden where it headed straight for the brightest flowers….
I was able to safely recapture it however, and it is tucked away for now, waiting to be made into a mini-quilt, or maybe a happy cushion…. Sadly it doesn’t have a name yet! I would love it if you suggested one for me in the comments. I’d better be off to gather some more flowers for the poor thing, it’s dark and dreary in the cupboard.
You can buy your own butterfly pattern HERE.
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leanne
this is beautiful – especially love the hummingbird fabric you’ve used at the bottom 🙂
Cassandra
Thanks Leanne! It was a happy accident that one, I ran out of the other green and had some perfect strips of this one left from another block. They became my favourite part!
Janine
Absolutely stunning Cassie, fantastic job!! I don’t think I have the patience for it! 🙂
Cassandra
I’m sure you do Janine, you create beautiful work!! We’ll have to add that to our list of classes 😉
Lisa Johnson
Flutter – I want to try this pattern on day! Your butterfly is beautiful!
Cassandra
What a beautiful name idea Lisa. I hope you do try it, it’s a beautiful design.
Kirsten
Just gorgeous – your piecing is amazing!! I was trying to remember which butterfly it reminded me of and I think it is a Dunk Island butterfly.
Cassandra
That’s the one! I knew that there was one like it somewhere. Thanks Kirsten!
Fiona
The Cassius Awesomus butterfly? I like to make up my own Latin 😉
Cassandra
That sounds great!
Mara
Very pretty, your center turned out perfect, I had the hardest time with those angles, cutting many fabrics several times.
Cassandra
Thankyou Mara!! I had to walk away in frustration at one point, until I came up with the idea to make two triangles and just put the long piece in straight. It worked much better 🙂
Indianna
Ahhhh…great minds think alike, I made the wings symmetrical too. Lovely colours.
Cassandra
Thankyou Indianna! I have so much trouble getting my head around non-symmetrical anything!
Raewyn
Well done – it is gorgeous!! And so satisfying to have made it with your scraps, even if it meant for some creative sewing!
Cassandra
Thankyou Raewyn! Yes, I haven’t been quilting a really long time, but I find that I hoard my scraps terribly. They are threatening to take over the house!
Juliet @ The Tartankiwi
Love your butterfly! Good on you for improvising!
The pattern is one of my very first ones and I wasn’t competent enough with the software to do a mirror image of the wings. I have played with the idea of making them symmetrical many times, but there is a part of me that thinks that nature is not symmetrical so why should my pattern be. That said, I have made various versions of the pattern over the years and later versions are symmetrical. Maybe I will update it… one of these days…
Cassandra
Juliet, I think it’s perfectly fine to leave it the way it is…. as you say, nature is not symmetrical. I’m just ocd like that 😉
Susan Grinvalsky
Is this butterfly pattern available for purchase?
Cassandra
Susan, it certainly is. You need to go to http://www.thetartankiwi.com site – the pattern designer. She has a menu across the top with an option for “Buy My Patterns”. Clicking on this will bring up all the dozens of patterns she’s created. You can page through them all, or use the search function to find the butterfly.
Happy Crafting!
Cassandra