Dogwoods and Butterflies Quilt

I've been absent for awhile due to a trip to Hawaii, then a family reunion trip to TN.  When I got rested up from traveling, I had to get my mom's birthday/Mother's Day gift finished.

I fell in love with the AQS 30th Anniverary Dogwood Fabric Collection and ordered the half-yard collection.  (Of course, I then added additional yardage as it went on sale.)  Mom loves green and Dogwood is Virginia's state flower, so I combined the two and set out to create a quilt for her.

My inspiration came from Dogwood Blossoms, Sylvia Schaefer's quilt featured in McCall's Quick Quilts May 2015 edition:
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/quickquilts/articles/Dogwood-Blossoms-Springtime-Applique-Quilt-Pattern

I chose Kona Cotton Tarragon for the blocks of my quilt and created the flowers with the Dogwood fabric using my Sizzix Dogwood/Rose petals die, alternating small and large and dark and light flower blocks.  I used a dark green polka-dot fabric for the centers of the flowers.  Using fusible adhesive to attach the petals and the centers to the fabric, I then applique stitched around the pieces.

For the sashing to connect the blocks, I chose the Blue/Green Pearlized (leaves and berries) Dogwood fabric.

See that little butterfly in the middle?  Lucky me, while I was working on the idea for this quilt, I won a pack of Shabby Fabric's new laser pre-cut, pre-fused 3" butterflies from Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts.  Alyce then kindly sent me her left over shapes and her remaining April Showers charm pack and some cute heart-shaped buttons!  Seriously, how sweet is that?!?  You can find Alyce at http://www.blossomheartquilts.com  Gosh, I hope to get to her level of quilting one day.

So, of course, I added some butterflies to the quilt, which really made it pop.  After fusing the butterflies, I applique stitched around them using a silver metallic thread, which my mom quickly noticed while admiring her gift, SCORE!  For binding, I used the Blue Petals Dogwood Fabric and back to the Tarragon for the backing.  Dogwood and Butterflies finished at 40 x 41".

I have to say that I am so very proud of this quilt.  It's the first quilt I've created the pattern for, first time I've appliqued, first time I've made a quilt uing blocks and the first time I've gifted a quilt to someone who really understands what goes into making them.  Although Mom didn't quilt (she sewed our clothes when I was small) her mother quilted and I'm lucky to have a couple of quilts from my beloved Grandma Sallie.  So, of course, I had to add the label on the back just in case I'm lucky enough to have it live on:

What I learned this time:

• Shoot, make sure to add that 1/4" seam allowance to the blocks before trimming!  When I trimmed them all to 6", I ended up being a bit short in connecting some of the blocks.
• Leave enough extra fabric to overlap and join the ends of the binding, ARGH!
• Always double-check to be sure the phrasing is spelled correctly before pushing the button to sew the lettering on the label.  The letters are close together on my machine and I ended up with an "n" where there was supposed to be an "o".  Not to mention, it took two days of work to get the label how I wanted it.
• Before fusing, make sure the rows are placed correctly.  The flower blocks were actually supposed to alternate between large and small within the rows.  I actually didn't even notice until I was wrapping the gift, LOL!
• When I'm in tears and ready to quit, just remember...

this makes it all worth while...