More Dresden Plates and Butterflies

I was very busy yesterday!  I sewed together ALL of my Dresden plates and butterflies.  I made enough for 20 blocks.  I laid them on top of an old quilt, and I really like the blue border with it!  Judy from Patchwork Times is a having a quiltathon this weekend.  I won't be able to do all day today since I need to get my lesson ready for my children's class, but my friend Chrystal came over yesterday and we sewed all day!

I woke up at 5:30 to get my pumpkin soup started.  Then I washed the dishes, cleaned my mirrors and windows and cleaned the bathroom.  Of course I checked my emails and she got here at 9:30.  She was making a dress for her little girl.  Pippi was so excited to have four children to play with!

To see my post about sewing the wedges together, go here.  I wanted it to go faster, so I started sewing them two at a time.

Then into fours, until I had the whole thing sewn together.  Thanks to Kati's advice, from Kati's Quilting and Sewing., see her quilt here.  Diane from Rabid Quilting also gave me a lot of good advice, see her quilt here. I started ironing as I went and it was much easier than ironing the whole thing at once.  They were a lot of help

  

After I finished and ironed all ten of my plates I started on my butterflies.

 And of course Pippi came over to "help"

She decided she would rather play with kids though. 

 The Dresden butterflies were very easy to make.  I decided to put two colors together for each wing instead of separating them by print.  It makes it look more like two wings on each side, in my opinion. First lay out each butterfly to make sure you have all the colors and settings right. I sewed two wedges at a time.

Be sure to iron after each one, these were a lot easier to chain stitch without messing up the order of the wedges, I think almost every plate got mixed up.  After sewing each wing, take the bottom wing and the top wing and sew together.  Remember that each side will be sewn opposite to make sure that the same pattern is on the top all the way across and the same for the bottom.

I made ten sets of butterfly wings

Since the wings will be appliqued on "as is" be sure to iron the sides down also.  I just finger turned them and ironed.

Then turn them over and iron from the top.

And your finished wings!  I accidently "curved" the sides, but I love the way it looks!

Now I have to decide how to make the middle.  I found this picture on Pinterest:

Source

Do I want to cut out the middle and applique them on, or do I want to use a Dresden wedge as the middle and antennas?

Thank you to everyone who has been helping me figure out measurements and everything else!

After lunch I quickly canned the leftover soup, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished by the time Chrystal left at four, we even played with my treadle a little bit.

I usually have supper ready for my husband when he gets home at 5:30, but yesterday when got home I was sitting on the couch with Boots in my lap, Muffin beside me, Pippi at my feet and Precious behind my hand on the back of the couch, I was on the computer.  Good thing I had a 15 minute supper planned!  LOL

Keep Quilting!

Missy