"Butterflies in the Garden" Fence Post Block

SAMPLE border for garden

While waiting for the butterflies to fly north to my garden, I gathered supplies for my border. I decided to keep the same theme of tone-on-tone, yet keep the floral fabrics within the garden.

Off I went to shop for fence posts fabric.
I found white-on-white in a splintered wood look.

Then, I found a soft blue that looks like a summer sky with soft wisps of clouds floating lazily.

I already had the grassy green, but after some thought, I wanted to trim my quilted garden as I do my flower gardens. I love the intense outline of dark brown chips along the border, so I browsed the store for a dark tone on tone. I found a piece that actually looks like the shades of browns cast by the chips!

With all the fabrics in hand, I began to design the border and fence posts for my butterfly garden. I'm so excited to work on these blocks.
The actual blocks will be five fence posts with blue sky, measuring a 7.5" block. I will first border my garden blocks with 1" strips of brown, then of 2" strips of green and finally, add my "white picket fence outlined by a sky blue" block rows.
My binding will be also made in the soft blue.
My quilting plan is to stitch crossbars along the posts and then use grassy green thread to make strands of grass along the fence in FMM designs.

So, thank you "Block Swappers"! Your blocks are vivid and beautiful! I've squared and arranged my rows of floral fabric blocks.
My Butterfly Garden awaits my diligent work on the fence.

Small projects

As I wait for the Butterflies to wing their way north to my floral garden, (previous post) I decided to put quilting aside for a week or two and focus on some cute little sewing projects. After all, why would I be given the precious gifts of grand daughters and ignore the possibilities of sewing adorable little outfits?

I wanted to make a jumpsuit for the birthday of our sweet 1 year old grand daughter. The blue of this fabric reminds me of her beautiful eyes and I know her mommy loves blue! I began my sewing projects with this little outfit. I'm quite proud of the changes I made in the pattern. I put cuffs on the legs to keep it fitted over her shoes. I also left the collar off and made a ruffle of the short sleeves. The fabric makes it dressy, but it's no frills for play.

Her mommy made some bibs from terry cloth and scrap fabric which just needed my sewing machine to add a little touch of Velcro as fasteners. The little one finds sleepy comfort rubbing terry cloth with two fingers in her mouth. Using terry cloth backing makes great washcloth cleanups when the meals are done.
Here are 2 of the little bibs!

I found adorable fabric to replace a favorite outfit that had long since become too small for our third little overseas princess. It was her favorite Grandma-made outfit, but sadly had to be passed on. To dry the cascading tears, I promised to replace her Dora dress as soon as I could. I searched in several stores before I found any Dora fabric, and was thrilled with this vivid dark shade of burgundy with blue butterflies. It is a reversible outfit, so I found some matching blue for its backing.

The calendar page turned over to May while we visited the little one in a southern state. It was wonderful to see the azaleas and dogwood in full bloom and enjoy the southern sun and hospitality. We returned home on the first of May only to be met with spring rains and the predictions of SNOW (?) brought by very cold winds.
My Butterfly Garden blocks hadn't arrived yet, and it's too cold to plant the transplanted day lilies, so the rest of this week, I hope to finish the Dora dress and get it in the mail.

I love being a grandmother with a sewing machine! The joy of sewing somehow brings the little ones with their conversational questions and contagious giggles right into my sewing room while I dream of them receiving and wearing these adorable creations!

Extra Flowers and Butterflies

Shopping for tone-on-tone floral fabrics was immensely fun, but as usual, I was torn between the colors! How do you walk away with just two colors? Each bolt was so vivid and gorgeously printed.  Decision was impossible, so, along with the vivid red and blue, I came home to the cutting board with delightful cottons in green, yellow, pink, and violet.

Assembly line sewing was very easy for this block. I made a continual chain of sewn pieces, then cut them apart to press, making a new pile to connect the next pieces. Each step created a new pile, making the whole process simple and organized.

Within just a few hours, my cutting board held 44 blocks totally finished, pressed, and set aside. My red and blues were finished.

Next, I made 44 more green &violet blocks just for fun. They are vivid tones with smaller floral prints.  I'm not sure where I'll use my extra colors, but maybe I'll have enough blocks for some extra room decor to match the Butterfly Garden quilt when it is finished. I'm considering making some pillowcase sets that include quilted borders, some shams, or even some throw pillows.

I've decided to leave the pink and yellow fabrics as optional colors to add if I need more blocks for shading and finishing the landscape of my dream garden plans.

For the "landscape" of my garden, I'm dreaming of bunched shades of color. I want to create a natural display in a progressive rainbow as I would find in my actual flower garden. Hopefully, this garden will all be fenced in with a white tone on tone picket blocks trimmed with tone on tone green symbolizing grass. I've tried to draw my idea of a block design on graph paper. Now I'm assembling one sample block before I decide if I like the look surrounding my garden. My final step hopes to be a soft blue binding representing a summer sky.

Cultivating My Dream Butterfly Garden

As the birds singing fills the air, the smells of Spring rift toward my nostrils, and the breeze becomes warmer, my garden plants are sprouting through the soil and the buds are bursting into bright colors!

From the open window, my sewing machine can be heard joyfully buzzes through straight quarter inch seams as 7.5" squares are assembled in my cheerful hobby room.


Half of the 4" squares of tone on tone have been cornered with 3 inch squares of black on white,  or white on black. These smaller squares were pressed diagonally in half, and then sewn across a corner of the 4" colored squares. I stitched the diagonal, then stitched 1/4" from that seam. I cut between the two seams, leaving excess triangles in one pile and new 4" squares to press open and connect to another 4" unchanged floral. The change of one corner made one side of the butterfly wings.

The block swap organizer requested the favor of sending these excess triangles along with our blocks. She has high hopes of a "traveling project" with these little triangles. I imagined all sorts of projects, so it will be fun to see the purpose she decided for these.

My assembled 7.5 blocks give the appearance of fluttering butterfly wings among the flowers. All 44 gorgeous blocks have been assembled, pressed, packaged, and ready to migrate to the big Garden Butterflies Swap.


While waiting for warmer weather to return a variety of floral tones to my home, my sewing skills will be challenged with plans to construct the picket fence, trimmed with grassy green border to encompass my new Garden of Butterflies in full bloom.

"Dreams of a Garden"

I love the smells and sights of Spring and dreams of warm Summer days!

I was recently inspired to make Butterfly blocks for SWAP in a group on MSQC forum. These swaps cause extraordinary visions of finished projects to pop into my head!

So, I shop with great care for my dreamy choice fabric and purchase enough to make not only the swap blocks, but the envisioned quilt!


I've titled this new vision "Dreams of a Garden". 

I'm using tone-on-tone floral prints. 

I chose two vivid prints of red daisies and cloudy blue violets. 

My butterflies will center each block using alternate black on white and white on black fabrics.

Today will be spent at the cutting table, making a variety of squares to be pieced together to complete 7.5  inch blocks. I'm told the blocks are easily assembled, so I may even get time to spend at my sewing machine. 

The swap promises 22 other colored blocks to add, if I choose, but I won't see those until later in April. I may end up with two quilts, or one huge garden!

For the big finish, I also purchased tone-on-tone striped greens and tone-on-tone whites for the border. I know the green will give the impression of grass borders and I'm hoping with the white, I can create a picket fence for my garden.

Looking for a Good Novel?

Here's one my daughter just read. I think some of you might like to find this author.

Our families are avid readers, and for years have held the novels by Francine Rivers in high esteem. Here is a new book that has been mentioned many times in our conversations while I'm here visiting my family.
Now, I see my daughter put a review on her blog.
I think this author's work will be put up on our favorite shelf next to Francine Rivers!

Anyway, I'll be checking it out, and thought some of you might be looking for a good book, so please click on this link to find her review:
 http://mommynificent.com

What was that Word again?

For me, visiting my precious family, means traveling to an island where everyone is speaking a foreign language around me. For this visit, I'm hearing mostly Bahasa Malayu. I've always loved languages, and while I'm here visiting, I would love to pick up a few simple phrases, at least.

So, on this visit I have opportunity to accompany my grand daughters to their Bahasa Malayu classes. It is the very basic elementary listening class, as vocabulary is introduced to the beginner. Using objects and pictures, the instructor says the word in Bahasa Malayu and the children point to the correct objects. She patiently repeats the words over and over, hoping to increase their listening skills as they recall words she has taught previously.

used by permission: 

I sit in the back of the room, and have a notebook of pictures. I watch her pronounce the words, then carefully watch what the little ones point to as they recognize the word she has said. This past lesson she took vocabulary and added phases to them, giving direction of what to do with the items to which they pointed.
Being a visual learner, it is also helpful for me to see the word written out, so my daughter writes out the vocabulary for me.

These photos are borrowed from the family's web page Living in Penang showing one class time. This site gives more details about the class and how my family found it. Please click the link to learn about this beautiful island and some of its interesting features. The web traffic would encourage my family and you'll read about some new adventures of every day life here on the island.
The creation of Living in Penang has hopes of making a more meaningful stay on this wonderful island for tourists, visitors, ex-pats, and just visitors, like me.

So, while I'm basking in tropical sunshine, curl up with your cup of tea and let your curiosity read a little bit about an island in the Archipelago!