Yvonne's February 2015 Block for Hive #2

I have to admit that when I first read Jo's request for the February block for Hive #2, it struck a bit of fear into my heart. I definitely panicked a bit at the thought of applique, but Jo wrote a fantastic tutorial. So, after a few deep breaths... I jumped in. I chose 3 Kona solid grays (whose exact colors I have lost track of over time) to piece together the background. I played around looking for a butterfly shaped that I liked, and I settled on this beauty:

I printed out the butterfly scaled down to fit on a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper (the image I downloaded is quite large) and carefully cut out the body and wings. Because this is the Stash Bee - I used what I had on hand to help me with the applique: Pellon 805. I ironed on the Pellon 805 to the backside of my selected fabrics and then traced and cut out the shapes. After carefully positioning the butterfly on the block, I peeled the Pellon backing paper off one segment at a time and fused it down to the background block. I ironed the wings down first and then stitched them down (first with a straight line stitch very close to the edge followed by a zig-zag stitch). Then I ironed down the body and heavily zig-zag stitched it down (3 passes).

The fabric I selected for the butterfly wings has a subtle butterfly print on it, which makes me very pleased. :)

 And just for fun, I thought I would share how it all looks on the back of the block.

Thank you, Jo, for the well-written tutorial, freedom to "play", and for the challenge of trying something new!

The question that Jo posed this month is who our ideal 4 dinner guests would be. I am going to have to say that I would love to have my 4 grandparents over for dinner. For multiple reasons, I really never had relationships with 3 of my 4 grandparents: my paternal grandfather passed before I was born, my maternal grandmother passed when I was quite young, and I only briefly spent a bit of time with my maternal grandfather once as a teenager. And while I spent time with my paternal grandmother (she is the one who encouraged me to start quilting!), I would love to talk to her more now that I am an adult. And if I could choose, I would love to visit with them when they were younger and closer to my current age. That would be a divine treat for me.