Just finished the butterfly!

Butterfly 18 X 23″

I had a huge scale flower fabric that I had thought would make a nice background but it seemed too busy. Nothing that I tried really worked and there wasn’t time to shop, but these from my stash set it off nicely…. One of the background fabrics worked well for the binding. I only use beads if the piece calls for it and this one did – only two for the antennae; they are matte black square beads. Perfect!

I found my fabric’s inner butterfly and by the time I cut the best parts with their quarter inch seam allowances, there wasn’t much usable left. I had to fill in with other fabrics – quite a challenge!

Not quite what I envisioned, but it will do!

Today I will quilt it and then it will get hand embroidered antennae. At this point it is about 18 x 24″.

So yesterday I was going to post an update, but when I went to download the photos my camera batteries were dead.

I had mentioned that I thought that the elk’s butt might need to be lighter

but I decided that the original was light enough.

Notice that I did tweak the antlers a bit! They are smoother now.

Filling in some background, I will use some lighter yellow areas of the hand dyed green. I think this dark shoulder is a little too much, it needs to be lighter.

This one is too light, though.

I think this one will work. But that highlight is too light and will need fixing.

This morning I was reminded that a challenge I had committed to was due soon – like next week I think!!

This is the fat quarter that I have to use:

Funny how the background, which is light blue with yellow spots reads about the same as my gray design wall. My piece has no info on it as to the designer or the fabric company, but it is certainly an interesting bit of fabric that must have piqued my interest at the time.

Accepting the free fat quarter meant that I accepted the challenge to make a small wall hanging  no larger than 18 x 24″ to donate to the guild’s charity silent auction.  I decided that I could get a butterfly out of it so yesterday I did a sketch and made a pattern for a fantasy butterfly that I hope to start today. The elk will have to take a back seat for the time being!