Flight of a Butterfly

It was a wild and willy-nilly week as I finished my customer's quilt.  You can read all of my thoughts on this quilt on my Less Than Perfect Friday Finish. In the end, I am embracing the fact that this quilt is finished and that is better than perfect.  It warms my heart to know that it will wrap a grateful and appreciative family member.

Once the photo shoot was done, I had a creative session as I picked through some of the scraps from my friend Pat.  I chose to make a mini bargello style quilt and was pleased with what I ended up with, but it seemed a little bare and I was undecided on how I wanted to quilt it. 

Early Saturday morning (around 5 a.m.), I had an inspired idea to use a butterfly cut from the same stash of scraps I used in the mini.  I fused a piece of fabric to the back of the butterfly and carefully trimmed off all background fabric. Using some lime green embroidery floss, I quilted in a flight path and stitched down the body only of the butterfly, allowing the wings to be loose, making this mini a 3-D quilt.  I continued using the floss on the back of the mini to quilt it, but only let an occasional random stitch pop through to the front of the mini.  What do you think?

Speaking of mini-quilts... There are still a few days to enter my birthday give away.  Leave a comment telling me which of these mini quilts (shown below) you would like to receive if your name is randomly selected as the winner before Midnight, April 17 to be eligible for the drawing on the 18th.

I have placed my order for 50 Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail Books and reservations have been made for the Santa Fe Trail event where there will be a portrayal of Marion Russell (by her great-great granddaughter) and Kit Carson.  I will have the Pieces of the Trail quilt on display along with the opportunity to sell my book to those attending the program.

Interested in a copy?  You can order you own personal copy directly from the printing company and have it shipped directly to your address.

Last week's Sew & Tell highlights are from:

Yvonne's Circle of Friends was stunning with the bright colors on a black background...

Melisa continued hand quilting her Easter quilt, but it was her embroidered Bunny Kisses that caught my eye...

Deb celebrated her first finish of the year with her scrappy Pink Courthouse Steps

This week I'll be in the studio making memory bears for a customer.  She gave me 10 different pieces of clothing that had been her Mom's.  That means 10 bears... well, she said "make as many bears as you can from all of them."

While cute, they are time consuming.  I guess I will see what I can get done. :)  I am ever grateful that I have customers continue to contact me requesting work...  whether it is finishing another's quilts, making memory quilts from a t-shirt collection or just custom quilts... I offer thanksgiving that I get to do what I love without adding to the amount of "stuff" we already have.  And I love that I have a variety of projects keeping me from getting bored. 

Because when it comes right down to... Creators gotta' create! And variety is the spice of life, right?  I have very few patterns that have been made exactly the same... I'm just that way and believe that God made us unique individuals for a reason and therefore, there should never be two (or more) of a kind of anything... like memory bears... each one will be unique - similar, but unique. 

Do you make duplicates of whatever you make?  

Or are you a fan of unique and individual?

Time for you to share what YOU created last week.  Join the party to get linked up and be sure to visit some of the others that joined the party too.

Keep Piecing,

Melva

Linking with:

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy’s Quilts

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

This & That at Days Filled with Joy

Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do

To Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt

Mid-week Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese 

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Free-Motion Mavericks at Quilting & Learning

Little Things Thursday at Good Random Fun

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