Winter Butterflies in Shades of Frost

It's been a mild winter up here in western New York and after last year's copious amount of snowfall, we couldn't be happier. This past week we had a 54 degree day in February!

While we are so grateful to have been spared (so far) a massive amount of mother nature's mantle, it's still a bit depressing to see all the wilted and dead plants everywhere. So if nature won't provide the butterflies to liven up our days, we'll just have to put our noses to the collective grindstone and make our own!

Today's mini project is from Laundry Basket Quilts and makes a quilt that is 14"x18 1/2".
I thought the quilt would be bigger when I initially bought it but found to my delight that simply because it was so small, it could easily be completed in a weekend or weekday. Additionally, because it uses such small pieces, it's the perfect project to use up all those tiny pieces of fabric that are too cute to throw away but not big enough to do any serious project.




I did this quilt with what I had on hand but if I were to do it again, I would definitely start with the paper backed fusible webbing that I used for the center of each butterfly to do the wings as well. In that way my butterflies would all look the same instead of the various different ones you see here.

Then again, all butterflies in nature are unique aren't they? Why should I think I'm any better than mother nature?

So some of my butterflies look a little moth like and some more swallowtail...

New from bad lighting theatre....

I used fusible webbing that I sewed glue side to right side and then rolled out. I used closed scissors to run across the seam on the inside to make it crisp and so I got all these weird little shapes.






I cut out the background and using the pattern for placement and an iron, ironed the pieces together to give me the wings.







Then, after I finally got smart, I bought some paperbacked fusible webbing and ironed on the center fabric, after it was fused, I drew the center and cut it out. Once adhered, you simply peel off the paper backing, position it where you want and iron it down. This is a new favorite that I just discovered and will be using in the future!

 


Paper backed fusible webbing  is so much easier when pieces are really small like the butterfly bodies!










Stitch everything down and join all the blocks. What I really liked about his project, other than it being absolutely adorable, is that could easily be done in a weekend or even a Saturday. The fusible webbing makes all the difference. I think the final project came out really nice, this may end up on the summer porch this year!