Monday, January 2, 2017

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies #12, Liberated Butterfly Blocks


My new 2017 calendar, Butterflies of North America.
I'm still sewing together four patches and 'liberated' butterflies.

Hello from New Hampshire, where it's cold. Have I already said that?

My new butterfly calendar for 2017 came in the mail. January's butterfly is a Malachite butterfly 
so named because it's green like the mineral malachite. It's one of the most common butterflies in Central and northern South America. It's neotropical and has a wingspan of 3.3-3.9 in. 
 Its picture looks good next to my liberated butterfly blocks, my four patches and squares ready to be pieced together to make up my 'liberated' butterfly four patch quilt that I'm working on slow but sure.

If you're not familiar with what 'liberated' has to do with quilts, it's a word that Gwen Marston uses to describe her wonderful way of piecing. It's intuitive and 'make do' much the same way quilters from years ago designed and pieced their quilts.  She has a class at iquilt, Liberated Quiltmaking, excellent. I bought that class and still go back to it over and over.

I'm linking up with Ann and Cathy 
 for Kaleidoscope of Butterflies #12. Stop by and visit them and check out the quilt butterfly news.

Stay warm and remember there are places in the world where it is warm right now! Like where the Malachite butterflies live.
 I'll stop by and visit soon.
 

12 comments:

Ann said...

Your butterflies remind me of Cathy's except she calls hers waste triangles. Varying the backgrounds like you're doing adds extra dimension. Good idea!
Thanks for linking with Kaleidoscope of Butterflies and stay warm.

Pamela said...

Love seeing your butterflies!

Cathy said...

Thanks for the education on Malachites! My liberated/aka waste triangle butterflies are coming along slowly but surely too. I'll bet our quilts will look very different even though using the same technique. It will be fun to see them both finished...some day...some day!

Monica said...

Are there going to be a lot of those liberated butterflies, Janie? That will be awesome! I may have to try some...

Janie said...

Hi Cathy,
I got the idea for my 'liberated' butterflies from Gwen Marston's book, 'Liberated Quiltmaking' in which she shows a quilt using the vintage 'exquistate' block done 'liberated' style. So many good ideas in her book.

Janie said...

Thank you, Pamela!

Janie said...

You're welcome, Ann.
I got my idea for my 'liberated' butterflies from Gwen Marston's book, 'Liberated Quiltmaking'.
In her book she shows a quilt done with a 'liberated' vintage style block, the 'exquisite' block.
That's where my idea came from.
I'm using my butterflies in my 'Santa Clara' color style, mixing them with four patch blocks.

Janie said...

Yes, butterflies everywhere! I've also made up a small quilt of X's and O's using the same technique.
I saw it in a local quilt shop and had to make one up 'liberated'.

Janie said...

Oops, typo, exquisite is what I meant.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Yay - another year of flutterbyes!!! I'm happy! Actually we have a flutterbye calendar in our kitchen this year - partly because I've enjoyed seeing yours so much over the past year.

Janie said...

I like that, flutterbyes! Look forward to sharing more,yes. Are you going to share yours?

Kaja said...

I'm looking forward to a big crowd of your liberated butterflies.