RJR Fabrics Blog Hop: What Shade Are You?

detail of Butterfly Bunch throw size quilt. Designed and made by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio with cotton quilting solids. These butterfly patchwork blocks are foundation paper pieced and can be made into the perfect wall hanging, throw, twin, queen or king quilt to give as a gift.

Who loves solids? I am a HUGE fan of working with solids, so when RJR Fabrics invited me to participate in their What Shade Are You? Blog Hop, I was in!

The invitation came at the same time that I was finalizing my new Butterfly Bunch mini quilt pattern. While the pattern makes 4 butterflies in a circle, you can arrange the butterfly blocks in any arrangement you want! I even give some alternative ideas in the pattern—you can use my ideas or design your own layout.

My initial plan and color scheme was based on 16 butterflies arranged in 4 circles. (spoiler alert: once the blocks were complete, I went with a different layout—read on to see the final quilt!)
A preliminary layout of Butterfly Bunch blocks. Fabrics: Cotton Supreme Solids by RJR Fabrics. Pattern: Butterfly Bunch by Whole CIrcle Studio.

A beautiful rainbow color palette of Cotton Supreme Solids by RJR Fabrics. Ready for quilting! Curated by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill.
I’ve been slightly obsessed with rainbow color palettes lately (anyone else share my obsession?) so I was thrilled to work with the following RJR Cotton Supreme Solids:
• Chili Pepper (49)
• Rio (311)
• Sunset Ruby (357)
• Raging Ruby (287)
• Orange Peel (412)
• Oriole (314)
• Sunnyside of the Street (379)
• Harlequin (358)
• Neon (348)
• Grass is Always Greener (347)
• Spearmint (389)
• Schooner (392)
• Turks + Caicos (292)
• Lake (427)
• Jacaranda (317)
• Violet (423)
• Kerchief (364)

I decided to make all the wings on each butterfly one color. For the bodies, I used the wing color in the block next to that butterfly. I essentially just swapped colors.

Color and fabric selection on my Butterfly Bunch coloring sheet. I used RJR Cotton Supreme solid fabric in blues and greens to make this mini quilt.

Once I had my plan, I was off! This foundation paper piecing pattern has lots of diagrams, tips and tricks making it easy to make. Each butterfly block measures 14″ x 14″. 
Butterfly Bunch quilt blocks. A cute, easy to make foundation paper piecing pattern. Make a wall hanging, mini quilt or bed quilt for a baby, kid or butterfly lover. Makes a great gift! Pattern by wholecirclestudio.com

It was so exciting to see the rainbow of butterflies come together!

A rainbow of Butterfly Bunch quilt blocks. A cute, easy to make foundation paper piecing pattern. Make a wall hanging, mini quilt or bed quilt for a baby, kid or butterfly lover. Makes a great gift! Pattern by wholecirclestudio.com

a stack of foundation paper pieced blocks ready to be made into a quilt!

As my blocks were being constructed, I couldn’t help but keep rearranging them all on my design wall. I took photos of different arrangements and ultimately decided to mix it up and go with the flow of my gradient/ombre color scheme and let the layout support it.

Rainbow / Ombre layout of Butterfly Bunch quilt blocks. I love this cute mini quilt layout that could easily be a twin, queen or king size quilt. I constructed this out of Cotton Supreme solids by RJR Fabrics. Pattern by wholecirclestudio.com

next step: basting

Need some help basting?
Check out my tutorial on how I pin baste large quilts on a small table!
quilt, tutorial, video, tips, basting, pin basting, quilt sandwich, safety pins, how to make a quilt, quilting, modern quilting,

Pin basting made easy! Lots of pins means less puckers and frustration.

and on to quilting

When it came time to quilt, I wanted to “go with the flow” of the arrangement of the butterflies and create movement in the background. I first quilted my butterflies and then, starting from the middle and working out, created organic and wavy lines evoking the paths that the butterflies might take. I quilted this version of Butterfly Bunch using my Juki 2010q with my Janome walking foot (affiliate links). I pieced and quilted Butterfly Bunch using Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread in the following colors:
• Red Wine (2260)
• Neon Orange (1104)
• Pumpkin (2150)
• Spring Green (1231)
• Light Emerald (2860
• Turquoise (2810)
• Dark Turquoise(4182)
• Medium Blue (2735)
• Medium Lavender (2540)
• Magenta (2535)
• Stone (2324)
• White (2024)
Is there anything more beautiful than a rainbox box of thread? Here is part of my Aurifil thread collection.

Quilting my Butterfly Bunch rainbow quilt on my Juki 2010q with my walking foot.
Quilting my Butterfly Bunch rainbow quilt on my Juki 2010q with my walking foot.

last but not least: binding

I considered making the binding out of the background fabric: Kerchief (364), but then decided that this rainbow quilt needed a scrappy rainbow binding! I used each of the 16 colors I used for the butterflies in the binding, loosely positioning them on the perimeter close to where the corresponding butterfly was.
Rainbow fabric strips to be made into binding. Fabric: Cotton Supreme Solids by RJR Fabrics.

the finished quilt
A modern, rainbow version of Butterfly Bunch quilt. Fabric: RJR Cotton Supreme Solids. Pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50 wt. cotton thread.
detail of Butterfly Bunch throw size quilt. Designed and made by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio with cotton quilting solids. These butterfly patchwork blocks are foundation paper pieced and can be made into the perfect wall hanging, throw, twin, queen or king quilt to give as a gift.
detail of Butterfly Bunch throw size quilt. Designed and made by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio with cotton quilting solids. These butterfly patchwork blocks are foundation paper pieced and can be made into the perfect wall hanging, throw, twin, queen or king quilt to give as a gift.

want to make your own beautiful butterfly quilt?

This makes the perfect handmade gift for a baby, child or nature enthusiast! Use what you have in your fabric stash, fat eighths or fat quarters for the butterflies. Just add yardage for the background! BONUS! Get the pattern and join the online Butterfly Bunch Quilt Along — I give my tips and tricks for making a beautiful butterfly!


Go make something awesome!
Sheri


Links to specific products are selected by me and are only products that I use, love and endorse.  This post contains affiliate links. 

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5 Comments

    1. Thanks Yvonne! I’m glad I was able to pull it off. It does look fairly close to what I envisioned. I really appreciate your kind comments!
      –sheri

  1. I’ve just found you via the RJR giveaway on Instagram! What a beautiful quilt! Your videos are so nice and I love the tool links! I need the light box!

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