Design #441 – Love Butterfly

Time for a new design today and my inspiration is none other than…butterflies! For this design I wanted to create a really simple butterfly shape using other simple shapes. This ended up being more of a motif than a filler design, but it’s still going to look great on your quilts wherever you put it!

This design fits into the Center Filled family because you start in the center and fill outward. It’s also Beginner Level because this cute little design is formed from super simple heart shapes and echoes.

The antennae added to the butterfly effect, but also created a weird spot in the texture…hmmm…stick with it or scrap it, that’s totally up to you! Let’s see how it’s quilted:

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned realizing that this design works more like a motif than a filler design. Fillers literally “fill” the space on your quilt, like Sharp Stippling in the background of this butterfly block:

Motifs are designs that stand out as their own unique statement. Yes, they also fill space on a quilt, but most often they are a design that is placed first, then a filler design is quilted around a motif for emphasis.

So here’s another take on Love Butterfly, but this time placed on the quilt as a motif, surrounded with three rows of echo quilting, then filled around with Stippling. See the difference?

Don’t worry if you don’t understand the difference between motifs and fillers. The terminology isn’t important, but what you choose to do with the design is! Where are you planning to use Love Butterfly?

I think this design would look super cute placed randomly over a girly baby quilt. If you used bright, contrasting thread they would really pop and look so cheerful on the surface!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day