Paper Pieced Butterfly Pillow

Hi, it’s Amy here today from During Quiet Time. I’m sharing a tutorial for this paper pieced butterfly pillow featuring Mariposa by Shell Rummel for Blend Fabrics and 2 new Therm O Web products plus my old standby (fusible fleece!).

Paper Pieced Butterfly Pillow

To begin, using traditional paper pieced methods, you will piece the butterfly.

Download paper piecing template here.

Here is where one of the new Therm O Web products comes into play. Rather than printing onto copier paper, I printed my pattern onto a product called StichnSew EZ Quilt Block Sheets. These sheets have many uses but one of them is foundation piecing. Some pros that I noticed right away were: the product can be run through either an inkjet or laser printer, the ink does not smear when pressed with an iron, the sheets are transparent so it is so easy to position your fabric.

Once all your sections are pieced, you will want to trim down to the 1/4″ seam allowance that is marked on the pattern piece.

Then join the pieces to create your finished 7″ block. See how transparent the product is?

When your block is complete, you can remove the StichnSew EZ Quilt Block Sheets from the back. I was impressed by how little stress this caused on my stitches.

You can see the stitches where I removed a piece of the foundation paper here. They are not stressed and the product is not caught under the stitches.

Then I added three borders cut to the dimensions shown here.

Next, I took my 18″ pillow front and fused it to HeatnBond Fleece Fusible. Can you see in this image how a little bit sticks out along the edge? I try to be careful when fusing but frequently hit little edges like this with my iron. This is where the second new product comes in…Pressing Paper.

You simply use this paper as a press cloth when using fusibles like the fleece or HeatnBond appliques. Place the shiny side down and it will not stick to the adhesive and the adhesive will not stick to your iron.

Once the fleece was fused, I quilted the pillow front and hand embroidered some antennae.

I used an invisible zipper closure.

Thanks for sewing with me today!