Butterflies table runner

 

Our son went away on Thursday, on the French Exchange with school.  A gift for his host family was in order, so I made a table runner inspired by the quilt made by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts.  I worked out a way to machine appliqué the butterfly bodies and wings rather than piecing them: if you look closely at the photo above you can see the stitching close to the edges of each piece.

I think I'll be making another butterfly quilt in the future - I love the shapes in it for some reason and once I'd worked out my technique it came together really quickly - I cut the blocks, made the blocks, pieced them together and quilted the runner last Sunday between Church and suppertime.  (Not that I was last-minute planning what to send to France!)

This is my favourite block - the Liberty lawn I used for the butterfly bodies looks good with all the blues, but with this one it sings.  We had an email from France last night which included the sentence, "They love the table thing by the way."  I'm glad they love the table thing - it was hard to give away!