Friday, January 22, 2016

Key West Butterflies

Does it count as a finished quilt if I don't have the binding sewn down yet? 
This is my butterflies quilt.  I finished the quilting, made the binding, and machine sewed it on yesterday, and will be sewing it down by hand this weekend.

(I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts today.  There's a link back at the end of the post.)

I call it Key West Butterflies because I appliqued a lot of these on a trip to Florida in 2014.  (I did a post about it called Back from Margaritaville)

Each butterfly is surrounded by a row of squares, cut from vintage fabrics.  Half of the butterflies are appliqued on white squares, and half are on blue.  They fly in different directions.


I think this orange one is my favorite.
I bought the butterflies on Ebay years ago.  They were just the butterfly shape, which had been cut out and embroidered, and the edges were basted under.  There were no backing squares.   Most of the fabrics in the butterflies are from the 1940s through the 1960s.
Here's the back!  Each of the 20 squares was quilted separately on the machine.  I used vintage fabrics for the backs and old fashioned cotton batting.

Most of the fabrics on the back are just vintage cottons, but a couple are from feedsacks.

This pink print with the enormous blueberries (?) was a skirt I bought in an antique store.

It's about time I finished this!  It has been languishing for months.
I'm looking forward to watching some PBS mysteries while I sew the binding down, and then get a label sewn on.
I'm having such a good start to this new year.  I hope you are too!

Back to Crazy Mom





7 comments:

  1. Such a sweet quilt. I love butterflies.

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  2. It remind me very much of butterflies my grandmother used to applique using black thread and a blanket stitch. I don't know that she ever finished a quilt of butterflies, though. Yours is gorgeous. The vintage squares are perfect for the butterflies.

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  3. Very pretty! Id call it a finish! You finished the quilting! ; )

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tammy! I've got the binding done now, too, just need to sew the label on.

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