Bailing out Mama

No my mom didn’t go to jail!

My mom joined the ranks of longarm quilters a few years after I did.   She occasionally takes on jobs she doesn’t feel ready to handle and she brought along a customer quilt when they came to visit.  To me this quilt looked like fun — it didn’t require persnickety quilting, but I could just jump in and let loose.  (The quilt really isn’t crooked, it is just my picture-taking angle and using perspective in Photoshop.)

The large butterflies are each quilted differently.

But the fun part was the freehand butterflies in the half square triangle blocks

and the smaller freehand butterflies in the background among the swirls.

I drew pictures of both in my notebook and so for anyone who cares here is the step by step process of both butterflies.

For the half square triangle blocks I used the diagonal seam as a guide.  If I were quilting the butterfly in a solid block, I would probably draw in a guide line.  I start the whole butterfly with an elongated tear drop shape for the abdomen.  (Disclaimer — I am not an entomologist and do not promise anatomically correct butterflies ;-o )

For the antenna, I back track down to the head.

I start with the outside of the wing and then add detail inside.

I back tracked slightly over the thorax to get to the other side.

For the smaller butterfly I marked a straight guide line in the position for the body — other than that it is very similar.  It just doesn’t have to fit in a square.