Blanket 3

So, I've been doing a lot of sewing lately. I really enjoy sewing - actually, I think I love planning/designing what to sew more than the sewing. But when one of my creations turns out (which doesn't happen all the time) I get so proud.

With this blanket I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I got the idea from a blog - www.littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com
I saw the original blanket on the blog before I was pregnant and I really wanted to have a reason to make it - and so when I found out I was having a girl I knew for certain that I would be making a butterfly blanket.

I love all the beautiful fabrics available at the fabric store and when I have a project like this that requires different fabrics it usually takes me at least an hour to finally decide what fabrics to use (Emrie is very patient with me. And I always bring snacks). I based the quilt off the fabric you see in the center butterfly (you can see it better below). It has pinks and orange and green and brown and blue. Then I bought complimentary fabrics (some fabrics I already had in my own collection). The white background fabric is flannel. I thought the flannel would be cozy without being too heavy.

For the butterfly pattern I copied as best I could the butterfly found on the blog where I got the idea. I created my own template and then adjusted the size and shape so that I'd have a few butterflies that were slightly different. I then had to trace and cut out all the butterflies - but first I attached them to a double-sided iron-on iterfacing fabric. The cutting out didn't take as long as I thought. Then I arranged the butterflies on the white flannel just like the original blanket I saw. Then I ironed them in place and satin-stitched (a tight zig-zag stitch) around the edges of each butterfly. My satin-stitch isn't perfect and if you look closely you can see the many errors I made - so don't look too closely.



The hardest part of the quilt was doing this stippling effect (and it's probably the least impressive part of the quilt). This was the first time I had done free motion stippling on my machine and if I had known how long it would take me I would have done a larger pattern. It took me at least 5 solid hours of crouching over my machine with tense shoulders and tired fingers to get this done. I think it was worth it, but I did have to lay down for about an hour because my body decided to have some contractions that got a bit too uncomfortable to ignore. The back of the quilt is one of those cozzy fabrics for babies. You can't see it very well in this picture, but it is really soft and with the stippling effect looks pretty cool.

The final part of the quilt was the binding. I created the bias tape myself using the same fabrics that I used for the butterflies. The corners are mitered and the final width of the binding is 1/4 inches. I really enjoyed making this quilt (except for the stippling) and would totally make - or help someone make another one.