Sunday, March 30, 2014

Butterfly Medallion Quilt

Happy Mother's Day everyone, I hope you're having a lovely day. (Not sure my friends on the other side of the Atlantic are celebrating today but this side certainly are.) After a mega busy few weeks here in lovely Cork, I'm finally catching up on myself with some blog writing. First job is to finally post my Medallion QAL progress, which is happily a finish.


I had decided from the start to make this medallion in a baby size. Originally I was planning to stop at 40" square, but as the design-as-you-go process played out, I found that I needed to go a tiny bit bigger, so this stopped at 43".

The central block was a butterfly block, inspired by Megan's tutorial.

 

We used the process outlined by Melanie in her great tutorials. Alas, quilt maths is not my strong point and only a couple of borders in I managed to mess up my border width giving me a very challenging quilt top width to work with on the next border. After a LOT of trial, error, ripping and ranting, I finally got a triangle border to work.

 

Inpired by Cindy's border, I did square-within-square cornerstones on this border, fussy cutting some little girls for it, and I think this is the detail I love the most about this quilt.

 

 Each little girl is different.


I finished off with a skiny border and progressed quickly onto basting and quilting. I did wonder how the basting was going to work out, as I've found medallion quilts can look a bit ripply and don't lie quite flat when you're piecing the top, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.


Love that crinkly texture that quilting with Aurifil 50wt gives my quilts. It just sinks into the quilt when you wash it and feels so lovely.

I used a bright and cheerful print on the back. One of the reasons I stopped at 43" rather than adding more borders was that I didn't want to piece a back because it would break up the effect of that lovely geometric pattern. (Plus, obviously, I'm lazy when it comes to piecing quilt backs).


You can see the third cornerstone in this picture too - I think that girl is my favourite.

Lastly the binding - what else but pink hearts for a baby girl?


This quilt has gone off to meet its new little owner, and I know that it will be very loved. It was a lot of work, with a lot of tiny piecing in it, but so very worth it. I think it is one of my favourite quilts I've ever made. It was made almost entirely from fabrics in my scrap basket and stash, with the exception of the binding and some of the background fabric. Just goes to show that scrappy doesn't have to mean mismatched and random but can be bright and pretty and together.

 

I'm linking up with the Medallion Quiltalong over on the MGQ Ireland page.

19 comments:

Judith, Belfast said...

Scrappy quilts are my favourite kind! This is a really sweet medallion! Jxo

Cindy said...

Wowza!!! Sarah, it's a stunner. Our first QAL finish! And a brilliant one :)

Karen said...

What a beautiful quilt. I really love the medallion.

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

This is lovely and remarkable to think it is all from scraps

Katy Cameron said...

Gorgeous quilt, and rather jealous of your blue skies setting it off!

Katy Cameron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rachel said...

It's beautiful Sarah!

Andee said...

It is gorgeous! Great job!

Quilterbell said...

It is so pretty, I want to do one of this now!

Lucy | Charm About You said...

That is so beautiful! I adore it all!

Becky (My Fabric Obsession) said...

So beautiful! And happy Mother's Day!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Gorgeous, well worth the maths xxx

Julie Cefalu said...

Just found your blog through Pat Sloan's link. Love your medallion quilt and other pretty things here.
Julie @ The Crafty Quilter

felicity said...

Sarah, it's absolutely perfect. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Happy Mother's Day! (Ours is the second Sunday in May).

margaret said...

a lovely quilt yes I know it will be well loved

Motherdragon's Musings said...

Oh Sarah, the quilt is magical, such bright cheery colours.

Ruth said...

Gorgeous! One very lucky girl who gets this!

Sew Create It - Jane said...

That's a lovely quilt... Nice thing about medallions they grow big quite fast and they are fun to try all sorts of border ideas :-)

Melanie McNeil said...

This is so beautiful. I feel so honored when I see the lovely work you all are doing. It is so far beyond my wildest dreams!

Thanks so much for playing along and for sharing your amazing work.

Melanie from catbirdquilts.wordpress.com