Holly's Flutter-By

One of my former colleagues (Holly C.) called last week and asked for my opinion on some vintage blocks that her husband's mother had made. I met her at the school and discovered she wanted me to turn the pile of blocks into quilts for two of her children.

Half of the blocks (those shown above) were hand-stitched with muslin backgrounds, and the other half were machine stitched with a poly-blend background fabric. We discussed how large she wanted the quilts and played with potential block settings. The layout, shown above, was rejected because Holly wanted a rectangular quilt.

I brought all the blocks home to hand wash (I knew from working with these blocks my mother made and kept in her cedar chest, that vintage blocks get very dirty in storage and from handling) and to square them to the same size, which ended up being 10.5 inches.

The two piles of butterfly blocks were made (in my opinion) by two different people. The ones with muslin backgrounds were more carefully made with neat and smooth seams. The poly-blend blocks reflected an impatient quilter, as numerous seams overlapped and are puckered. The poly-blend blocks were also less consistent in size, making sizing them a challenge.

Each butterfly's wing contains three solid-black fabric pieces
 and three print-fabric pieces.

On Friday, Holly and I met to choose fabric for the quilt tops. We worked with a lot of bolts of fabric before Holly found the combination that she wanted for the muslin blocks. We were not so lucky with the poly-blend blocks. Background and border fabrics were auditioned and rejected, auditioned and rejected - nothing fell into place, and I finally told Holly if she didn't see anything she loved than it was best to just stop trying. I came home with the fabric for the muslin blocks quilt.

Holly's Flutter-By
59 x 79 inches

I am pleased that the top turned out so well, and I think Holly will love it, too.

Using scraps from the front, the thirteenth butterfly was added to the quilt's backing.

I definitely want to see Holly's Flutter-By after it is machine quilted.

Update: October 8, 2014

I found the butterfly block pattern online as well as a tutorial.

Alice Brooks Butterfly block

Alice Brooks Butterfly tutorial