Mom's Burgandy/Green Quilt

Last year I found myself being interviewed by a judge to be on a jury. In response to one of the questions, I replied (without thinking), "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Since then, I have realized just how applicable that statement is to so many decisions that I have made!
Take this quilt for example. You see, we never intended for Mom's quilt to be green. It was supposed to be burgandy and rose. Green was supposed to be the accent color. Boy, did we ever accent it! We kept finding ourselves attracted to the floral prints, which naturally had green in them. Anyway, it wasn't until we looked at our collection that we recognized our blunder. It was such a beautiful compilation though that it would be a shame to not make it that way. And, it did seem like a good idea at the time!
Still, it turned out quite beautifully, and Mom was just as pleased with the quilt!
The pattern is one that we found in Colorado. It calls for 1 jelly roll to make a throw quilt, but we wanted specific colors and styles.

Of course, just as other fashion venues have trends, so does the quilting world (For some reason quilters are getting stuck on batiks and civil war fabrics right now). Well, considering the options we had for jelly rolls, we just bought our fabric off the bolt and cut our own 2 1/2 inch strips. Then we enlarged the quilt size to fit the bed. The only dilemma we found with the pattern was the excessive amount of fabric left over. We solved that problem by turning it into a border.

My favorite feature though, is the butterfly! I've appliqued plenty of butterflies, but this time I wanted to try something different. It was a lot more work, but it was worth it! I selected some of the scraps from the quilt, cut the right shapes, and appliqued the entire ensemble together. Isn't she a pretty little butterfly?
The next step was to quilt the masterpiece. Patches has become one of my favorite quilt stores, since I took the Gammill quilting course there. I quilted the Watercourse pantograph in green thread, and the subtle effect is gorgeous! I wanted to set it up on the bed as soon as it was quilted, but, as with all quits, the binding remained to be done. You know, sometimes it feels like quilts never end because there are so many steps! However, after just a few weeks, the quilt was finally completed, and ready to be displayed!
Best of all though was how much Mom loved it!