Hive 2 - February - Applique Butterfly/flies

I had a long hard think about this block...

Last year - I did an Applique flower block and the results we fabulous!  Please excuse the very wonky picture!!!

So I played around with something similar...  the final decision was a "Butterfly Block"

So.......

You will need:

·                     Background Block:     Scraps enough to make a scrappy 12.5" block

·                     Butterfly/flies:       Contrasting scraps to the background

·                      Applique method of your choice:  I used bondaweb and blanket stitched

·                     Threads:   Your choice for the blocks, and your choice for the buttefly/flies.  I used a contrast as I wanted to see the blanket stitch

Basic instructions:

I don't want to patronise so will not labour these too much!

Background Block

Please make a scrappy neutral background.  This can be bright, neutral, light or dark - as long as the butterfly you use stands out it doesn't matter.

Only two rules:

·                     Finished block is 12.5" Square

·                     Ideally NO Crazy patch (please!), i.e. all nice squares and rectangles, no triangles, wonky lines!  Sorry this plays with my head, so nice regular blocks please  :)

My Background:

·                     I used greys cut into 2.5 strips.

·                     Pieced horizontally to a block around 14” square….

·                     Then squared to 12.5” “squiffy” – i.e. not straight to give it a bit of interest!

Easy so far?

Now for the fun bit!

The Butterfly/flies:

Feel free to applique one or more butterflies in whichever method you feel most comfortable, i.e. turned edge, raw edge etc.

As we are not trying to turn this into a mammoth time frame, the raw edge method is by far the quickest!

If you aren't familiar with this, I've done a brief tutorial below:

·                     Decide on a butterfly / flies design – I Googled a few things for inspiration:

·                      Butterfly Silhouettes

·                     Butterfly Applique

·                     All gave me a few options…..  I printed a few out and then had a play drawing them

·                     Select some fabric that will ensure this Butterfly/flies stands out from your background - you really don't want all this work to be lost and disappear into the background.

·                     Find a design you want then transfer the individual elements to bondaweb – don’t forget the overlaps!!,  (don't forget to draw on the non-sticky side, and that you get the opposite of what you draw!)

·                     Draw however many “Wings” you need for you design and cut out - NOT on the lines, but leaving a rough 1/8" - 1/4! around:

·                     Iron this onto the WRONG side of you fabric

·                     Cut out on the lines

·                     I used the Teflon sheet method to initially align.  Simply remove the backing and iron all the pieces onto a non-stick (baking) teflon sheet - EXACLTY how you want them to be as “butterflies”. 

·                     Allow to cool, peel off as one “solid” butterfly, position where you want the butterfly/flies on your background and re-iron in the final position (saves a lot of faffing with trying to get the wings in the right place!)

·                     As this is raw edge appliqué you need to stitch around.  How you do this is your choice.  A running stich all around?  Blanket stitch?  Wide zigzag?  YOU decide!

·                     I love blanket stitch so I used that in different colours – feel free to have  aplay with different stitched

If you are not confident or worried about a wavy line - have a practise on some scraps. A few wonky stitched wings, really isn't an issue, BUT if you are really worried, leave this bit and I'll do this when I receive - but go on have a go!

Hopefully - you'll end up with something like this! 

My question:

Who would your 4 ideal dinner guests be:  Real, imaginary, Dead or alive?

Mine are:  Stephen Fry, Einstein, Margaret Thatcher and Jools Holland

 Enjoy!  Any questions let me know!