Made with Oakshott

Hello!  My name is Juliet and I blog at The Tartankiwi. I'm thrilled to be here today to give you a wee progress report on the butterfly quilt that I am making as part of the Made with Oakshott Challenge.


When I saw the beautiful sheen of the moonlight Oakshott Cotton Bundle, my thoughts turned to butterflies.


A colour wash of butterflies to be precise, using my paper pieced simple butterfly pattern.  I immediately sat down and started planning. It was lots of fun, throwing lots of ideas out there and slowly refining them to form a project that I was happy with.


My first idea was fun, but would have been a real headache to sew.
 

My next idea was too random in the colour placement and just not quite right. I also wanted a bit more variation in the size of the butterflies.


I really liked my third idea, but somehow, it just didn't seem right to have the left and right wings in different colours.


There may have been other layout ideas along the way, I can't remember, but I became excited when I came up with my fourth idea. It was almost right. The only thing that I changed was to replace the large buttefly using my original butterfly pattern with a large simple butterfly. I wanted to let the beautiful Oakshott fabrics do all the talking and felt that the more elaborate butterfly was just too fussy for the quilt.
 
The final design. Aaaah! Much better!
I chose Kona Bone as my background fabric and started piecing. It was a marathon effort, but all the butterflies are now pieced.


I can't decided which is my favourite butterfly. The largest butterfly in shades of black and green - the unexpected colours somehow make this butterfly or the tiny but perfectly formed butterflies in shades of wine and burgundy.


I'll be back soon with a completed quilt, instructions as to how you can make your own butterfly quilt and (if you're lucky) a paper piecing tutorial.

Comments

  1. wow I love those butterflies!

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  2. Those butterflies are gorgeous!

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  3. Great idea. The elegant sheen of the Oakshotts is perfect for butterflies, and has me thinking: dragonflies, peacocks, beetles? They seem to capture some of nature's special sheen and colors.

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  4. Fascinating process, and lovely design! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

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  5. Wow! Those butterflies are amazing!!

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  6. Wow, I am very impressed with this lovely quilt top and I hope you don't leave us waiting too long to see the completed article.

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  7. Amazing quilt! love the butterflies and all the lovely color!

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  8. This quilt is going to be gorgeous!

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  9. Whoever said this would be good for beetles as well was so right. The slight iridescence would look great. I love the butterflies and admire your patience too!

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  10. I loved it so much I've just downloaded the pattern. Please don't take too long to give us details of the quilt! Meanwhile I'll just practice a few

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  11. Thi is going to be a stunning finish. Love watching it grow on IG.

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  12. Your butterflies are looking wonderful. You should be proud of how productive you have been!

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  13. Wow, you really went through a lot of stages to come up with this quilt! Kind of like the stages a butterfly actually goes through to become it's beautiful self :)
    And this quilt will be as beautiful! Would sure love the instructions when you're done.

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  14. What a wonderful idea! Beautiful!

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  15. This is simply stunning - and such a clever way to showcase the shot cottons and capture the iridescence of the wings!

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  16. Sooo pretty! Those shimmery fabrics are perfect for butterflies

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  17. Just love those pretty colors!

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  18. Oh yes a cloud of butterflies is a great way to show of the Oakshott

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  19. Can you please give us an idea of the scale of this project? How large are the butterflies? How big will the finished quilt be?

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  20. What gorgeous butterflies, it's going to be a fab quilt!

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  21. Amazing work! I am very curious wht this will become!
    Esther

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  22. Love all the variations this went through

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  23. Oh my goodness! Gorgeous! And I love the peak into your process, thank you :)

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  24. Such gorgeous butterflies! And a fascinating look at the process you went through.

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  25. This is amazing! I've just seen the finished quilt and it is beautiful.

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