WIP Wednesday

I've been wanting to do the Take Wing Butterfly Pattern since the first moment I saw it.  It's a beautiful paper piecing pattern by Lillyella Stitchery.  I first saw it on Instagram and immediately fell in love.

The pattern is for a mini quilt that will measure about 24" by 15".  It is an intermediate pattern.  She has since created an easier pattern for beginners that makes a very similar butterfly.

So far I have finished the upper right wing and I'm working on the upper left wing.  I've been using all Alison Glass fabrics that I've had hoarded away for some time.  The background fabric is Essex Dyed linen in Natural.

I love intricate paper pieced patterns and I'm hoping to make more of these butterflies, possibly in single colors.


***Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

Finally, my pincushions!

Finally, I'm ready to show you my first set of 3 bottle cap pincushions that I've been working on and that I plan to enter in our county fair arts and crafts contest.


As I mentioned here, I used the tutorial on Craftstylish for the basic pincushion but the tops are all my idea.  I'm calling them "Flower Garden".

The Turquoise Flower

The Ladybug Daisy

The Butterfly Has Landed

I learned a new embroidery stitch for the white/turquoise pincushion - the Lazy Daisy stitch.  My embroidery skills are all a bit rusty but I'm getting a lot better at the blanket stitch and I 'think' I'm doing the whip stitch correctly.  Sometimes, if I can't figure something out, I just wing it.  But I think that's kind of good because you can be more creative and what you make is truly your own.

I worked really diligently on my stitches for these (not that they're perfect).  I didn't want any stitches under the flower petals, so I sewed the ladybug and butterfly onto the top layer of felt of each flower and then attached another flower layer on with the blanket stitch.  So each petal is actually 2 layers of felt.  If the judges are experts at embroidery, I'm sure they'll catch all my mistakes.

I'd love to hear any comments you have about my little flower garden.
And keep your fingers crossed that I win a ribbon :)