Pillow Talk Swap 9: Modern Butterflies

Modern Butterfly Pillow

Wrapped and ready for my partner

From Instagram: Test Block, Fabric Pull, Butterflies in the Wild

Wow, another fantastic round of the Pillow Talk Swap!  I had so much fun stalking my secret partner.  Darci made a great inspiration mosaic to get me started.  When I was thinking about what to make for her, I knew I wanted it to be not only scrappy and colorful, but also crisp with a touch of whimsy.  Butterflies are whimsical, right?  Well, this is my spin on butterflies.  It's a nod to a traditional quilt block with a twist of my own.  I loved making it so much, I'm already working on a butterfly quilt.

Does anyone else want to try it?  I'd be happy to write a tutorial.

On My Nightstand

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Did you have a good weekend? Relaxing? Busy? Productive? I spent part of mine happily reading. Here's a peek of what's on my nightstand.

There is Zakka Style for the sew along. Did you see Terri's tote bag this morning? So cute! I think I have enough essex in my stash to make a fun solid one.

I bought Transparency Quilts and A Field Guide to Fabric Design for my birthday...

See the top two? 37 Sketches and Liberated Quiltmaking II? Gwen Marston sent me copies to review and giveaway to one of my readers. Lucky ducks!! I have and love Liberated Quiltmaking II. Do you remember my Habitat quilt? I learned that technique from Gwen's book! I don't have her new one yet but it's high on my wishlist. Keep your eyes out for the giveaway later in the week.

I'm revisiting Material Obsession and Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again, looking for some scrappy inspiration.

There is an Everyday Food magazine tucked in there too. It's actually last years April issue, but April is April, right? Ugh. I'm in a major cooking rut. I just want good food that my family will eat and I don't have to think about too much.

I got in some sewing time too. Yay! I made a few asterisk blocks. I've never made these before and they were so much fun! I used this technique and my own measurements. I cut my main square 13" and my strips were 1.25" wide. The strips were a jelly roll and I cut it right down the middle. It was just enough for one block. Cool right? After I was done sewing the blocks, I trimmed them down to 12.5".

This one was almost liberated... I wish I pushed myself to take it a little farther. I'm definitely going to revisit the idea of liberated asterisks. Maybe with smaller blocks and a limited color palette?  Hmmm...

Any good books on your nightstand?  : )

BOOK LIST:

• Zakka Style by Rashida Coleman-Hale
• Transparency Quilts by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr
• A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight
• 37 Sketches by Gwen Marston
• Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston
• Material Obsession by Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty
• Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston

Evolution of a Quilt Design

I've been working on a quilt design using half square triangles. It is supposed to be for an Accuquilt Go tutorial, except I'm having the hardest time getting my Go Baby fabric cutter to work. There has been a lot of back and forth with Customer Service, returns (shipping costs adding up!), deliveries and scrap fabric. In the meantime, I'm working out what I'm going to make.

This idea started months ago. I knew I wanted to use one of the half square triangle (HST) dies and my stack of Heirloom fabric by Joel Dewberry.  

I made this sample block awhile back and I really liked it!

The stars looked a lot different once I put them together. Kind of plain and flat. I didn't really like the secondary shapes that formed. Especially the square. It's so... square.

I tried adding another block to break up the stars and set it on point. This is a sweet little layout, but not really what I was looking for. It didn't feel like a good match with the modern, graphic fabric. It would make a super cute baby quilt though.

The HSTs weren't sewn together in stars yet, so why not use one of my favorite HST layouts. I love the repetition and the scattered colors. I added a taupe color to ground the light Heirloom prints. This quickly became the front runner, but I wanted to push myself further. What else? What else could I make?

At this point, the kids are asleep, there is some kind of show playing on the TV (background noise) and the DH and I are working away on our laptops. I gave the "rotate block" button a workout in EQ. It was the DH's idea to break it up into quadrants (I'm sure it was his sci-fi influence). Brilliant! I really liked the movement here and also the crisp white and the warm and bold Heirloom. The only thing I didn't love about it was the overall square shape. Again with the squares.  Picky Pickerson. I know.

What else...

I stopped for the night and in the morning I decided to try again but with the actual fabric and not the computer. I don't know how many incarnations of HST layouts I went through. There were a lot. Stripes? No. Zig zags? No. Chevrons? No. Broken Dishes? No. My arms were getting tired. What else?!

Why not start with something I already liked and expand on that idea? Change it up a little. This is a riff on the pillow I made for the Pillow Talk Swap.

I knew I was done and I had the one when instead of thinking, I could make this, I was thinking, I want to make this. Right now! I left the room, came back... peek. Yup, I still like it. I had lunch, got the kids from school, went to the library and Target. Still like it? Yes. I really do. It's bold, crisp and scrappy. The blocks are big enough to show off the gorgeous fabric and there is a lot of movement and interest.

I hope you like it too. Tutorial coming really soon.