Tessilating Butterfly Quilt Top

The tessilating butterfly quilt top is done! I completed it 2 evenings ago. ( January 27, 2015)

I'm really pleased with how this quilt top looks, but I am reaffirming that I am never making this tricky pattern again! It is very time consuming getting all these curves right. Sewing the completed blocks together was a challenge as well.

I thought I had trimmed all the blocks to 7 1/4 inches square, but obviously I had missed a few or measured them inaccurately. As I was sewing the rows of blocks together I saw that some seams did not line up very well. I had to take the rows apart, re-sew a few of the block seams a tad narrower (or wider) to try and accommodate the differences. I even trimmed a smudge off the sides of a block or two.
In the end, I think I finally did success in getting the blocks and rows lined up pretty well.  As they say, "All's well that ends well"!   :)


I cut 2 inch strips of the solid pink fabric to use for the inner border.  The quilt top measured 38" X 44 1/4" inches.

Block rows with inner border

Next I  added 4 inch strips of the glittery butterfly fabric around the outside.  (Inner border width = 1 1/2 inches, outer butterfly border= 3 3/4 inches.)

The finished size of this little top is 45 X 51 1/4" inches.

I had a tiny bit of leftover butterfly fabric. I decided to add one more little touch to this quilt top. I fussy cut 12 butterflies from the leftover piece and used Steam a Seam to adhere them to the quilt top. Then I sewed a blanket stitch around them with my Janome machine. 

12 tiny appliquéd butterflies

Next step, wash the kitchen floor then spread out the back fabric, a pink minkee which I taped face down to the floor with small strips of masking tape.  Then comes the batting and last the butterfly quilt top. After smoothing them all out, I started pinning the layers together with numerous safety pins, starting at the centre of the quilt and working outward to the edges.

After that I used the leftover fabric (which there wasn't much of) and made it into a pillowcase.

Tessilating Butterflies- and How!

 Tessilating Butterflies Blocks  Jan. 17, 2015

As I may have already mentioned, these are rather tricky blocks to complete. They do look really cute once their done, though.

Sewing curves takes a lot of patience. It's not difficult once you get on to it, but it takes a great deal of concentration and it's very time consuming.

Each butterfly block is made up of 9 curved pieces.  The first time I tried these blocks, I cut out enough pieces to make12 blocks for a baby quilt for my new infant grand daughter. Then when I went to sew the pieces into blocks, I realized that, YIKE, I didn't know where to start! I had never sewn a curve before, let along pieces that had both concave and convex curves!

I looked online and found a great video that demonstrated it very well. (See bottom of post for link.)

My tweezers became my new favourite tool.  :)

At the time, I had said I was never going to make these tricky, time-consuming blocks again, but here I am, 2 years later making 30 curved butterfly blocks this time!  (Sucker for punishment, I guess… :/ )

Tip:  Before you start sewing the pieces together, make 1/8 inch cuts around the edges of the curves, especially the concave (inward) curves.

2 pieces that need to be sewn together, with both concave and convex curves

Flip the 2 pieces right sides together just like you would to sew square or rectangular pieces.  Pin the edge where you want to start.  Some sites say to pin the start, the middle and the end of the pieces.  In this case, because of the changing curves, I found that didn't work very well. 

Put your presser foot down and stitch 2 or 3 stitches. Lift presser foot; Move your top fabric edge over to match the bottom fabric edge close to the needle; Then stitch 2 or 3 more stitches.  Repeat...

I use my tweezers to help me grip the top fabric and slowly move it to match the bottom edge as I'm sewing whenever possible. 

Keep moving the top fabric edge over to line it up with your bottom fabric edge after every few stitches. 

Press seam open and you are done!

Putting the body in between the wings was the tricky part especially the last edge.

Sewing curves tutorial

http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2011/12/sewing-curves-is-not-hard-seriously.html

Connecting Threads-Sewing Curves Tutorial     (Scroll to the bottom of the blog for a good video)
http://www.connectingthreads.com/tutorials/Curved_Piecing__D82.html

 The 30 (plus) butterfly blocks will be sewn into a new "big girl" quilt for my little grand daughter C who just turned 3 and is now in her "big girl" toddler bed.

Arranging blocks- only 6 left to make! :)

Her twin brother H will be getting a "big boy" quilt, too, after this one is finished. 

Happy quilting!