My Quilt Festival Entry

This is Megan's Butterflies.


The quilt was a gift to my sister-in-law, Megan, for Christmas in 2001. The evening I gave the quilt to her, my husband asked her what kind of quilt she would like to get someday. She responded, "Oh... something very traditional, maybe red and white." I nearly blanched. Ack! Well, I figured, it was too late for that-- she was gonna get rainbows. :)

This was my first original design, created all by myself with my imagination and some graph paper! (Can you tell I'm proud?)


Megan loves fairies and butterflies, and at the 2000 Quilt Festival I picked up some nifty batik butterfly squares (the ones in the border). For a long while, I was stymied as to what to do with them. But after making my first couple of bargello quilts, inspiration hit. I chose the colors for the quilt from the batik squares, and the design just kind of flowed across the paper. It came together very quickly.


The other fun aspect of the quilt for me is the back. I pieced the back using the remnant of fabrics from the front, as well as the last butterfly square, and another beautiful butterfly batik. I then used the pattern on the batik and quilted the design from the back-- so on the front you see lots of butterflies seemingly randomly fluttering about.



And, the label:



(I apologize for the pictures... I don't have the originals anymore, and I couldn't take new ones as Megan is currently gallavanting about New Zealand.)

If you have the chance, try to check out the other entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival (if you click on the link and scroll down a little, there are links to all the participants). There are some amazing quilts and many wonderful stories out there. So inspiring!