Social Butterflies - Project Quilting

"Social Butterflies," 14" x 12", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 10, Challenge 1: Hope Springs Eternal, Jan. 2019 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "Hope Springs Eternal":

Your project should be about hope. It doesn’t have to be obvious, but you do have to be able to explain how it relates to the theme.

Funny note, my project for the first challenge of season 8 was titled "Hope."

For my challenge I decided to use the image of butterflies and how the caterpillar goes into the cocoon and emerges as a butterfly. Does the caterpillar know that it's going to emerge as a butterfly? And if it does know that, does it hope that everything works correctly? I know when I start a new project I always hope that everything works correctly.

For this piece I worked backwards. I found a piece of tie dyed blue and purple fabric to use as the backing. I sandwiched it with the batting and backing then did some free-motion quilting. My tip for free motion quilting is to use thread made for machine quilting. I finished the edges with a knife-edge binding. (Photo at left)

The butterflies: the back (left) and front (right)

I had fabric with butterflies printed on it and I cut out two, fused some interfacing on the back of them then fused a redish purple fabric to the back. I used black thread to sew around the outside to hold the fabrics and interfacing together.

I sewed them onto the backing but just along the middle and not around the edges so the butterflies still have some movement with their wings.

More about Social Butterflies.

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Hope Springs Eternal challenge page.