Dresden's Butterfly Garden plus giveaway on the Inspired by Nature blog hop

Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik Inspired By Nature blog hop! I hope you've been enjoying all the beautiful quilts made from Island Batik's summer lines.  I love the Inspired by Nature theme and had a few ideas, including one in particular that I've had in my mind for a while.  I sometimes think about classic quilt patterns and shapes that I haven't made before what I can do with them.  I've never made a Dresden Plate before and I've been wanting to play around with butterflies made with the blades. When I learned that my surprise collection was Tickled Pink, I knew it would work perfectly with what was in my head.

photo by K. Mellnik

Tickled Pink is a delightful collection of pinks, lavenders, light blues, and citrusy orange with lots of hearts, swirls, and flourishes designed by Kathy Engle.  I used all 20 fabrics in the collection, as well as the neutral Yolk for the background and solid pink for the binding.  Yolk is currently my favorite neutral; I love the swirls and the pale yellow makes everything look so warm.

photo by K. Mellnik

I used the EZ Quilting Dresden Tool designed by Darlene Zimmerman.  When I made my test butterflies, I couldn't decide if I liked 4-blade butterflies or 3-blade butterflies better. So I used them both!  

 

Once I determined what size blade I liked, I set to chain piecing.  They created quite a nice, colorful garland!

I loved my Dresden butterflies but felt like something was missing.  I decided to make the butterflies some flowers.  I used pretty small blades for this, as I wanted them to look like flowers.  With a name like Tickled Pink it felt important that one of the pink fabrics be prominent so I picked one I liked and used it for all the flower centers.  

  

Materials used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Hobbs, Aurifil, and Schmetz needles.

 

 

I used Aurifil thread 50 weight in color 1135, a bright yellow, to quilt wavy lines to represent the butterfly flight or a gentle breeze. The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 fusible.  I did all quilting and piecing with Schmetz needles, the only needles I ever use.

 

photo by K. Mellnik

 

Full disclosure: I made this quilt in August!  I've been waiting that long to show it to you!  Like I said earlier, I knew as soon as I saw the Tickled Pink collection that it was perfect for my Dresden butterfly experiment.  I also knew it would look much, much better being photographed with summer foliage rather than late fall foliage, so I made it early.

photo by K. Mellnik

That meant that getting good pictures with flowers was important to me.  Once it was done, I met my friend Kate for a socially-distanced picnic at a park she knew that had a great community garden.  Most of these fabulous pictures are hers; she has an amazing eye for photographs. 

Behind the scenes; photo by K. Mellnik

Now that you have seen Dresden's Butterfly Garden, how about a chance to win some fabric?  I have some leftovers of Tickled Pink to give away.  There are pieces of 5" x 10.5" of 17 of the fabrics in the line.  These could be cut into 5" charm squares but I will leave as longer pieces to make them more versatile.  There are also a few remnants of 2 1/2" strips from the flower blades.  Leave me a comment to enter.  If you need a prompt, tell me something in nature that has inspired a quilt (or other craft) you've made.

Tickled Pink prize.  The squares are folded; they are actually rectangles.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Island Batik also has a giveway for a fat quarter bundle of either Sweet Hearts or Love and Kisses.  Both are beautiful!  You can find the giveaway on their blog, and be sure to check back tomorrow (Friday) for a new giveway and a recap of week 2 of the Inspired By Nature blog hop.  The hop continues for one more week, so don't miss it!  And be sure to check out what my blog hop partner Carol Moellers made with Tickled Pink. 

photo by K. Mellnik

photo by K. Mellnik