The Social Butterfly....Looking Back, Vintage quilts inspiring new creations.....

Sit back and enjoy the ride of how I arrived here with The Social Butterfly....

I have always admired the Grandmother's Garden quilts. So much so that I have a couple vintage flimsys in my "to be quilted" stack!! When pondering how to interpret the Island Batik Ambassador challenge for April of using a vintage quilt to inspire a new creation--I decided to pursue using a hexagon.

During some of my forced down time this past month, I was mindlessly watching quilting You-tubes and stumbled upon The Arrow quilt by Missouri Star Company. The video was showcasing a Half Hexagon die from Sixxix.  I have the Half Hexagon die #55165 from AccuQuilt--so I was ready to go!

I was intrigued by Jennie's method of cutting the background half hexagon shape in half to use as the side pieces for each unit. That was it--I am going to make a modern Grandmother's Garden type quilt using these shapes!!

All the half hexi pieces ready to go!! Love the pretty stacks of Island Batik fabrics!!

Doing some chain piecing. Love the dog eared corners for lining up the pieces!!

Ahhhh--a finished whole hexi---now what to do with it?!? So I pondered it for a bit--not very long mind you as I only started this project at 1:30 in the afternoon--and had a deadline of bedtime!!

The creative chaos that I work in!!

As I was ironing all those chain pieced half hexis, I recalled a video from Sizzix I had watched earlier in the month. They have a die called Geese Crossing that uses a similar shape as this half hexi unit with the backgrounds attached.

So there you have it--my mind switched to that!!

Instead of hexagons--they became short stack flying geese!! Yeah I don't know what to call that unit--so I made it up--LOL. But I love the finished block.

We interrupt this sewing session to bring my husband supper in the field!!

Nine blocks later--a cheerful happy quilt.
I was in need of something spring like--and have just the right place in mind for it.

During the quilting I thought that these big open white spaces needed something yet.

Butterflies--just the right touch to add some vintage feel that was missing.

So I used the Butterfly by Edyta Sitar #55467 from AccuQuilt to cut out the shapes. You can use the affiliate link in the side bar to purchase your own dies! And since the quilt was still on the long arm frame, I just changed thread colors and stitched them right onto the quilt top.

Oh they make me smile!! Add the binding and finished by 9:30 pm!!!

The Social Butterfly, hanging by the front door into the studio. It will make me smile all spring and summer!!

"Happiness is like a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."   --Nathaniel Hawthorne

And that is how I started with vintage Grandmother's Garden and ended up with The Social Butterfly!!

Thank you once again to Island Batik for supplying the gorgeous fabrics and to Aurifil for the threads!! These products combined make beautiful things!!