Tessilating Butterfly Quilt Top

The tessilating butterfly quilt top is done! I completed it 2 evenings ago. ( January 27, 2015)

I'm really pleased with how this quilt top looks, but I am reaffirming that I am never making this tricky pattern again! It is very time consuming getting all these curves right. Sewing the completed blocks together was a challenge as well.

I thought I had trimmed all the blocks to 7 1/4 inches square, but obviously I had missed a few or measured them inaccurately. As I was sewing the rows of blocks together I saw that some seams did not line up very well. I had to take the rows apart, re-sew a few of the block seams a tad narrower (or wider) to try and accommodate the differences. I even trimmed a smudge off the sides of a block or two.
In the end, I think I finally did success in getting the blocks and rows lined up pretty well.  As they say, "All's well that ends well"!   :)


I cut 2 inch strips of the solid pink fabric to use for the inner border.  The quilt top measured 38" X 44 1/4" inches.

Block rows with inner border

Next I  added 4 inch strips of the glittery butterfly fabric around the outside.  (Inner border width = 1 1/2 inches, outer butterfly border= 3 3/4 inches.)

The finished size of this little top is 45 X 51 1/4" inches.

I had a tiny bit of leftover butterfly fabric. I decided to add one more little touch to this quilt top. I fussy cut 12 butterflies from the leftover piece and used Steam a Seam to adhere them to the quilt top. Then I sewed a blanket stitch around them with my Janome machine. 

12 tiny appliquéd butterflies

Next step, wash the kitchen floor then spread out the back fabric, a pink minkee which I taped face down to the floor with small strips of masking tape.  Then comes the batting and last the butterfly quilt top. After smoothing them all out, I started pinning the layers together with numerous safety pins, starting at the centre of the quilt and working outward to the edges.

After that I used the leftover fabric (which there wasn't much of) and made it into a pillowcase.