Tuesday Archives - Key Lime Butterfly

Val at Val's Quilting Studio has a weekly linky party called Tuesday Archives, a linky party featuring your old, archived quilting or sewing posts. The lovely Bernie at Needle and Foot mentioned it to me in one of her comments, and I think it is such a great idea! Val chooses a different theme each week, and today's theme is Butterflies.

I believe that most of the folks that participate simply link to their old post, but since my archived post is on an old blog, I decided to just repeat a portion of it here on this blog. You can read the post in its entirety here on The Katy Rose.

I think it's good to look back on old posts, especially when I see something I used to do that I should revive. Because I was new to quilting I added "Things I've Learned" to the posts about my finishes, and it was very helpful in my learning process.

Side note #1: I've had other blogs prior to this one! My former blogs are For Goodness Sake, a catering blog started in Oklahoma, Oklahoma Peach Fuzz which transitioned into The Katy Rose when we moved from Oklahoma to Katy, TX, and my present blog, started when we moved north of Katy.
Side note #2: The quilt in this post is the only quilt I've sold!
Side note #3: The paper-piecing class I mention in my old post? Sadly I un-enrolled and never took it!

Enjoy!

Key Lime Butterfly Complete - Things I've Learned

June 17, 2013

The vintage Schnibbles from my quilt-along is finished. I added the border of the white fabric with script, and the black and white hexagon patterned binding made the other fabrics pop.

The back is pieced with vertical panels of leftover fabric along with a coordinating swirl fabric.

The final size is 30-1/2 by 30-1/2 inches.

I finally worked up the courage to free motion quilt, and after all was said and done, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I cut a template for a butterfly design, marked it on each block with a Frixion erasable pen, and used my darning foot to stitch. There was a bit of pesky "eye-lashing", but only on the back. I did straight line quilting on the lime green bordering the blocks. I added a butterfly "body" with one of the embroidery stitches on my Janome.

Things I've Learned:

I learned that joining a quilt-along gives me the discipline to complete a pattern from start to finish with a deadline. No one pressures me but myself. On the day of the "parade", it is not only fun to see the variations but also to "meet" other bloggers and read their ideas and tips. I almost didn't do this month's Schnibble, and I'm so glad I decided to do it.

I learned that I can overcome any fear in quilting. Free motion quilting should have been fun for me, and up until this project, it wasn't. I finally began to get into a rhythm and feel the instant gratification and pleasure that comes from quilting a quilt. This feeling of "I can do it!" prompted me to enroll in a paper piecing class at my LQS.

I learned that even though I try not to be too hard on myself, perfect points are still very important to me. I found this tutorial about a positioning pin on Connecting Threads, and it worked!

Check out other interesting archived posts at Val's by clicking on the link below!