My butterfly wall hanging is finally finished with the exception of a tassel to add to the bottom. I'm not sure where this is going to go but I enjoyed giving him his wings! You can see more photos in my portfolio of crazy quilt projects.
There will be a progress article on this project in Pat Winter's new CQ magazine which will be coming out soon. Please be sure to follow her blog for updates and final publication information. Finally, a printed magazine for crazy quilters!!
Taking time off for some other projects, I've been working some "Butterfly" time in here and there. Here's an update to show you how it's coming.
With the butterfly still not attached, here is a photo of where I'm at now. I didn't want you to think I'm not working! All of the embroidery is complete and I only have beading to do. I'll be saving the body to show you when I take the "finished" photo.
I've finished the main part of the large flowers surrounding the butterfly. I just have to do the centers but I want to get the leaves done first - Boring!!!
These flowers were made using five sizes of the small "Perfect Circles" which are available on my website. I traced around the circles inside and out using white marker pencil directly on my wall hanging. Using 7mm silk ribbon for the two larger circles and 4mm for the three smaller circles and a combination of 8 colors, the work was pretty simple and went very quickly. I just don't know what I'd do without templates!
Just to keep you up on how my butterfly is coming along, I have finished stitching the "seams" for the background and am building on that with vines going up each side from the bottom center. The vines are green, but look pale in the photo. Fantasy flowers and leaves will be added. Then I don't know where I'll go from there. That's what a work in progress means to me! Stay tuned.
It's been over a month since I've blogged. I don't blog about myself and my everyday life (who would care?) We did go to see Cirque du Soleil (OVO) last night and if you get the opportunity to go, don't miss out. It was fantastic!! That said, I hope you'll understand that I can't always be turning out finished projects. Please keep checking back. I've been working on a challenge block which I can't show you right now. I'm also involved in a RR as well as working on some ideas for An Adventure in Crazy Quilting coming up next April.
All four segments making up the wings for my butterfly are finished and I have started doing CQ "seams" on my black silk. I've found that this is my all time favorite way to do all of the fantastic seam coverings and, though it's not for everyone, I just love the way it looks and how quickly it comes together. I wish I had started whole cloth crazy stitching a long time ago and worked it along with pieced parts such as the butterfly. I'm even thinking of revamping my CQ 2012 to use black as a background.....we'll see.
I'm still working on the other wing but it's been a month since I posted. I wanted to pop in and say Hi. I thought you'd like to see the wing I've finished with the two parts together. I've put it on the black background fabric for the photo. It gives you a better idea of where I'm headed with this. I'm almost done with the other wing after a time consuming big mistake I made and had to take out. I also spent a bit of time on a RR square this month between all the May birthdays around here. I find I spend more time trying to come up with ideas than I actually spend stitching.
Speaking of RR's, I read somewhere that when you do work on a square you should leave 1/2 " bead free along the edges that are going to be stitched to other squares or borders. I've never done that and just use a zipper foot to stitch the fabrics together and think that a scant 1/8" is plenty of space to allow. I think a 1/2" bead free area especially in a seam that goes out to the edge looks unfinished. What do you do? I guess you could enclose enough beads for the recipient to finish it off.
Here is the beaded upper right wing. I won't be posting the left wing and you'll see the butterfly again later on down the road. So that I have something to post I'll work on the background some and finish the left wing on the side. I still haven't decided what to do about the body. Any ideas will be considered!
Here is the upper right wing for my Butterfly Wall Hanging. I will use the colors, beads, etc. that I used in the lower part so it should move along a little quicker.
Today I finished the lower right wing. I added another layer of silk ribbon to each of the petals of the flowers. They look so much better now. A few other simple embroideries and lots of beads have brought me to the point of "enough is enough!" Repeating this on the lower left shouldn't take as long as no thinking will be involved.
This half of the lower right wing is not quite finished but I'll show you my progress. Here are two designs I drew to fit into special areas on the wing. As you can see, I use simple lazy daisy designs to place flowers and then use silk ribbon, beads etc. just using the design to guide me. I may add to the silk ribbon flowers as they look a little weak to me. Still thinking!! I love lace so almost always include it in my projects - not to mention, it fills space without too much work!
After spending hours trying to decide how I want to embellish the wings on my butterfly, I've decided to show you the simple route I've chosen to take. Remember, stitches will be done in mirror image with only minor differences.
For the first step, I gathered a length of 1/8" (4mm) silk ribbon as I tacked it down to the edge of the scalloped area of the wing. I then used size 12 pearl cotton to divide the different segments with a single line of feather stitch. I'll revisit this area with beads later. Since my background will be black, I'll introduce black embellishments whenever possible so the butterfly will look like an integral part of the wall hanging and not just sitting on top. On to playing with flowers - it has to have flowers!!
This is my first post in quite a while. I made my first trip ever out of the USA and visited England with my daughter for 8 super days. Not a thought of stitching went through my mind while I was there as I enjoyed the history and the scenery more than I can say. The Cotswolds will always be calling me from here on out.
Well, I've been home for 10 days now and am finally in the mood to start a new project. I've put away my 2012 quilt and another smaller piece I've been working on for a few years. Who knows if I'll actually get anything finished by 2012. Life is short and I don't want to tie myself down to a date. If it's done, great! If not, the Earth won't stop turning.
As the title says, this is an experiment. I am going to try to piece a butterfly much in the same way I did my pansy wall hanging so long ago. The butterfly won't stand alone, however, the way the pansy does. I'm going to appliqué it, after embellishment, to a solid black background and use the techniques I used for my whole cloth crazy quilt on the black. I've found that black is my all time favorite base for CQ embellishment. I work it up faster as I so enjoy the way the colors pop when I look at the embroidery stitches.
This butterfly is 27" wide by 20 1/2" high and is being pieced in bright colors. I decided to make it more in fantasy colors rather than try to make it look like a specific type which would probably end up wrong anyway. The fabrics are silk shantung and dupioni. I am using a lot of freezer paper and either ironing edges over and appliquéing or lining some pieces and turning in order to cut down on the silk fraying.
Here is the first part of one wing. It took me several tries to figure out how I wanted to do it. This one isn't perfect and I cut down on segments to make it easier to piece. I'll divide it up again as I go with my embellishments. The whole thing may end up being redone again or, maybe I'll just cover the mistakes I see with stitching.
I am giving you the drawing I made as well if you'd like to try it yourself. I still get requests for my pansy pattern, but I threw it away when the pansy was finished and only have my original drawing in a 2" square. Too tiny to piece!! I plan to stitch the butterfly one wing at a time and do mirror embellishment. How I'm going to assemble the butterfly is still not decided. I just do it by steps and redo if I need to as I go along.
%5B4%5D.jpg "Completed (sm)")
