Tuesday, April 27, 2010

rebekah's butterflies

Posting this is such a good feeling. Ever get stuck on a problem and it only seems to get harder with time? I needed to make pink the predominant color in this block and also wanted to include embroidery in some way. Squares and rectangles were in order, but not as log cabins or square in a square blocks. I hemmed, I hawed, I ignored it.
Finally I refused to let myself start in on any other sewing until this block was done.
And now I'm happy I waited on it because this is one of my favorite blocks I've ever done.

It's a little stripey, but it does include squares and rectangles (that section of berry dots on the left will be a square when the seam allowance is used as the quilt is pieced). I was heavily influenced by the tiny strips of fabric used in the blocks I received during my turn last year. Those 1/4" pink stripes thrill me.

The embroidery was what I was trying to work around at the beginning. I had it in my mind to embroider a chrysalis, but sketch after sketch only looked like poop hanging from a branch. Once I gave that up and focused solely on making the block first, it fell into place. The butterfly above is a white one from the motif fabric. Perfect for outlining in any color I chose. The pink sashiko stitches were done to emphasis the predominant color of the block.
It should be in your mailbox in a day or so, Rebekah. Think of it as a graduation present!
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2 comments:

Rebekah said...

I love it! Your stripes really make all of the fabric in the block pop and, of course, your butterfly embroidery is perfect! Thank you so much!

Paola said...

Every time I come here and find stuff like this I simply SIGH.
What a beauty.