Orange You Ready to Try Paper Piecing in April?
This is no April Fool’s joke. Because it is sometimes easiest to realize the design in your head by creating a foundation pattern and paper-piecing it, It is a good tool to have in your quilting repetoire.
In April, we will be making a 6-inch (finished size) Butterfly block.
Susan made this one.
The block is made from four fabrics: 2 oranges for the wings, a black body and light blue or aqua for the sky (background). See complete fabric guidelines below.
You may make a maximum of 9 blocks for chances in the drawing at the end of the month. The target set size for the winners will be 48 blocks.
You can download the pattern by clicking the pattern cover image or this link:
Use this coupon code during the first ten days of April to download the pattern for free:
QQ63DXU5WM
This beginner-friendly paper foundation pattern is a good one to practice sewing together multiple paper-pieced units and to try a way of cutting/positioning/trimming fabric so that you end up with a block made of fabrics that are on-grain with edges that won’t stretch.
It was such a gray and windy day when I took this photo of Butterfly blocks “in the wild” that is my backyard that I almost decided to wait … and then I heard the forecast for SNOW. Ahhh Spring.
Fabric Guidelines
This block is made from 4 fabrics:
Orange #1 –A solid, tone-on-tone print or multicolor print that is predominately orange (used for the upper wings)
Orange #2 –Another solid, tone-on-tone print or multicolor print that is predominately orange (used for the upper wings)
Black – A solid or black-on-black (BOB) print
Sky – A light blue or aqua. It may be a solid, tone-on-tone print or a light blue and white or aqua and white print.
If you make multiple blocks for the Block Lotto, you can use the same Black and Sky in all your blocks and use the Orange fabrics in multiple blocks, but each 2-orange combination must be unique.
Tags and Categories
Add the tag butterfly to all your blog posts about this block.
The category should be blocks when you are posting photos of your blocks to enter them in the drawing; use the category sent and received when you are posting about mailing or receiving blocks; and the category show and tell to share projects you make from this block (whether they are lotto blocks or blocks you make for yourself.)
The Rainbow Scraps Challenge Connection
Orange is the color choice for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge this month, with a suggested accent of black (or dark brown)–the inspiration is Monarch butterfly … a perfect match for the Block Lotto and the RSC this month.
The Virtual Quilt
For an idea of how a scrappy bunch of these blocks will look when they are all put together, this virtual quilt is made from photos of 20 blocks made by some of the sneak seekers. Thanks to Barb P, Carol, Christa, Deborah B, Gail, Julie P, Karen N, Mariella, Peggy and Robin for sending me photos of our blocks. If the blocks look less than identical, it’s because of the angle of the original photo. I was impressed by the number of unique orange fabrics represented in these 20 blocks.
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Don’t those look pretty together!
Oh I was hoping for some butterfly blocks. These are beautiful!!