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Monday, September 3, 2012

Quilting Butterflies .....

My Butterfly Garden quilt top has been finished for a while and pinned for quilting while I waited for the motivation and an idea on how I want to quilt it ....

I am still experimenting with free motion quilting and wanted to do some butterfly shapes.... now I am not naturally artistic and if I try and draw my shapes rarely resemble what they should be so I wasn't about to try and sew freehand butterflies .....

So this is how I got butterflies that look like butterflies when they were quilted....

 I chose one of the butterflies from the quilt and traced it onto freezer paper - I drew up about 10 of them so I had several to use at a time ........


I then ironed the freezer paper flutterbies around the borders and also on some of the blocks where there was no stitched design....


I squiggled around to the butterflies and went around the edge of the freezer paper trying not to catch the paper (though I did quite often - doesn't notice with the quilting but I was reusing the freezer paper butterflies in other areas)


this is how they looked after the paper had been removed....


I got this idea from this post at Ivory Spring - one of my favourite quilting inspiration blogs

The blocks for this quilt are all shown HERE - I am doing quilting around the edges of the appliques with some detail in the flowers and butterflies, squiggles around the stitched pictures and some fun quilting in the little back stitched quilt blocks... 

I'd love to hear other tips to make life easier for free motion quilting ......

Righto, Gotto Go.... playtime....

36 comments:

  1. wow Fiona that is beautiful and how clever are you,well done my friend,enjoy your day.xx

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  2. So clever of you. Your quilting design is perfect for this quilt. I am looking forward to seeing it all finished :o) hugs

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  3. Great idea for the butterflies ,I have done this with maple leaves before and it does work well .Your quilt is looking wonderful!!

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  4. Very pretty. Perfect quilting design for this quilt.

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  5. You are so clever and your sewing is wonderful. I think you are very artistic.

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  6. What a fantastic idea!! Love your quilting!

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  7. Beautiful quilt. Love the quilting idea. Hugs,

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  8. Hello Fiona,

    Have fun with the Butterfly quilting,it is wonderful to see you do the quilting yourself.

    Happy quilting.
    Bev.xoxo

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  9. I really like how you did that and it looks beautiful with your quilt. I wonder if I did that with wash away, since i usually wash mine after I finish.

    Debbie

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  10. What a great idea for quilting. Your butterflies look gorgeous.

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  11. Great idea! your quilting looks so good! I'm still very reluctant to quilt free motion.

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  12. What a clever solution! And you could use that idea for any shape. It looks so good on the quilt too.

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  13. ooh very pretty - I like those butterflies that are flying around your quilt.
    Perfect quilt design for this one.
    Enjoy Playing.

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  14. That's a similar method to the one I use, except that I draw my design on lunch wrap, quilt through it and tear it away. It can be positioned wherever I like, and if I stray outside the line no one need ever know!

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  15. Very impressive. I do like this.

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  16. That's perfect, great way to quilt this one. I think having a shape like that to quilt around, is a lot easier than trying to do it blind

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  17. Clever you! The butterflies are perfect! I like Jennifer's idea of the wax paper too!

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  18. beautiful!! so glad you have found inspiration to quilt it. Love it.

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  19. I really love the idea for quilting Fiona..
    Your butterflies look great....

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  20. What a great idea Fiona - using the freezer paper templates is a very clever way to position them just where you need them. Love you new header :)

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  21. What a great idea. I have a quilt with dragonflies that will be due to quilt soon...will be using this idea.
    hugs Tanya

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  22. You did a fantastic job too Fiona. Well done... you are so clever! :)

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  23. I've always loved this quilt..how clever of you and the quilted Butterflies look Fabulous...well done!!
    Cheers

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  24. I love your idea for quilting the butterflies! It all looks so pretty! :0)

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  25. Your quilting is amazing, Fiona! Thanks for the wonderful tip of using freezer paper as quilting templates. Sure beats having to draw each one of those shapes onto the fabric. Beautiful!!

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  26. What a great idea! Your quilt is going to look beautiful, cant wait to see it finished. Hugs x

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  27. such beautiful quilting and a very clever idea too. never used freezer paper but i guess sometime into the future i will give it a go.

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  28. Now that I'm finally 'out from under my quilt', I can come for a visit! What a wonderful idea....how come I didn't think of it? Thanks so much for sharing!! ~karen

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  29. Thank you so much for sharing... great idea

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  30. Ah Fiona, you are so clever to do that, it looks GORGEOUS my friend, well done!

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  31. Your quilting is looking fabulous. Great idea for the butterflies - I've used that method before and it does work well.

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  32. Woohoo, I've been wondering how you were going to quilt this beauty! It looks amazing, what a smart idea, it's going to be a stunner..... happy quilting Fiona...........Nicky x

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  33. What a fabulous idea to use freezer paper shapes...going to file that little tip away for later...your butterflies look great, perfect for the quilt, it's so pretty...

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  34. Hi, Have just found your blog while looking for quilt as you go ideas. Where do you buy the freezer paper from in Australia? Would anything else work? I have made a quilt with bears and was going to cut a template (or rather Hubby was going to cut) but I was worried about it moving around and your idea seems easier. Have bookmarked your blog and will look in often.

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