Paper Piecing A Butterfly

A few weeks ago Juliet from The Tartankiwi posted about a paper pieced Butterfly Block that she'd designed and she asked for volunteers to test her pattern.  Here's a link to her original post and when you see her block you'll completely understand why I was straight in there putting my name forward as a tester!

I'm thrilled that she chose me as one of her testers and when she sent me the pattern earlier this week I couldn't wait to get started so here it is:

Just to tease you - here's the front page of the pattern ;)

Choosing the fabrics.  Trialling fabrics in their relative placements (left) and lining them for overall value (right) 

My colour inspiration came from a Kaffe Fassett print that I bought at Liberty, London on my trip back to England in July (you can check out my post about my visit here).  I've decided I'll incorporate the butterfly into the front of a cushion cover, framing it with the Kaffe Fassett and finishing with piping in the Kona Grass Green.

My chosen fabrics for the project are:

Kaffe Fassett - Shirt Stripes GP51 Red

Kona Cotton Solids in

Carnation/Orange/Amethyst/Magenta/Grass Green

Michael Miller Solids in

Clementine/Lipstick

Bella Solid Moda - Pink

First pieces underway

I got so involved in piecing the butterfly that I completely forgot to take any more photos until I was finished!

So tell me, what do you think of this beauty?

Trialling the butterfly against my chosen cushion and piping fabric

Not sure when I'll get round to making the cushion itself, there're a few more projects to work on first but I'll share my progress with you when it happens.

Nervous about trying paper piecing?  Don't be!  Just watch my favourite Paper Piecing Made Easy YouTube video by The Crafty Gemini.  I found her video when I first attempted paper piecing for my New York Beauty Bee Blocks and she really explains everything very simply.

If you don't already have one, I highly recommend you invest in an Add A Quarter ruler by CM Designs - it's the best tool out there for all your FPP work (affiliate link).



And while I was busy paper piecing Tatty was also busy taking a very well deserved nap.

Juliet's patterns are available now via her Etsy store and also her Payhip store.  

Disclaimer: I do not receive payment from Juliet @TheTartankiwi for testing her patterns, nor do I receive a commission on any patterns sold via her Etsy store or any other sales method.  This post is purely informational and of no direct benefit, monetary or otherwise, to me.

Here's a look back at the patterns I've previously tested for Juliet.

Click any of the images below to go through to my post about testing that particular pattern:

  
 

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)

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Uncredited reproduction of all content, text and images on this site is prohibited. All content, text and images must be credited to Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD and include a link back to this site.

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Linky Parties This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too. If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties' page you can see where I like to share my work.

New York Beauty (June Bee Block) - Sunglasses Recommended!

Remember this fab package of fabric that I showed to you a few weeks ago?

Finally, Tuesday arrived as did my friend and fellow NYC Mod Bee member, M - both of us fully intent on learning this paper piecing thing and producing at least 1 bee block each for our June Queen Bee, Kimberly.

We'd both checked out the links given to us by our Queen Bee (you can find the links here in my previous post) and I'd found a great little tutorial video on youtube by The Crafty Gemini so we were raring to get started, although I have to admit we were both a little apprehensive.  M suggested that we started out making a muslin test piece rather than go straight into Kimberly's fabric - FAB idea.

After trialling a couple of seams we'd both got the hang of it and felt ready to move on to the real thing but I'm going to make sure I always have some muslin around for testing future blocks - it took all the pressure off and meant that we could just enjoy ourselves.

I've put together some photos and notes from my day to share with you, sorry it's no way enough to be a tutorial but some of my thoughts might be helpful to you.























So there they are all finished, my 2 New York Beauty June Bee Blocks and they're also on the NYC Mod Guild's blog.  I hope Kimberly loves them as much as I do and I know her quilt is going to be stunning. If I get to see it finished then I'll see if I can share a photo of it with you.

Since publishing this post Kati from Kati's Quilting and Sewing has told me about an Add a Quarter Inch Ruler which is very useful for paper piecing.  I have had a look at the company website and they give some very useful tips and suggestions for paper piecing which you may want to have a look at - C M Designs, Inc.


Related posts:
Stop Blogging; Start Making
Liberated Log Cabin - My August Bee Block

Click these buttons to see more of my NYC Mod Guild blocks and my tutorials

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.