Butterflies and Flowers Handmade Quilt

Butterflies and Flowers Handmade Quilt by Carol Creighton. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Butterflies and Flowers Handmade Quilt

It’s been a grey few weeks in mid-Missouri; typical of Januaries except for the record warm temperatures. I can’t remember the last Christmas here that was 70F, nor the Groundhog Day that marked 72F.

Not surprisingly, the groundhog February 2, 2020 did not see his shadow, forecasting an early spring. More reliable predictions have been made by scientists that as our global temperatures rapidly continue to warm, our springs and falls in the midwest will be longer with shorter winters. They’re not as cute as a groundhog so maybe that’s why some people dismiss their forecasts but they’ve been accurate so far.

So i spent Groundhog 2020 piddling around my limestone hillside garden. i dug out two concrete planters i had turned over and used the bottoms for legs, and then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon gently snapping off native pink phlox stems from last year’s crop of flowers.

Butterflies love the pink phlox so the more i have growing in my garden, the better. Cleaning up the pink phlox reminded me of the lovely butterflies in this Butterflies and Flowers Handmade Custom Quilt featured at Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild’s bi-annual show October 2019 in Rolla, Missouri.

This elegant custom handmade quilt has a traditional center wheel patchwork design with butterflies and flowers along the sides.

A closer look at the butterflies and flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Although I don’t know of any butterflies with these color combinations, I do recall some that have elements of these fabrics.

Blue Sulphur Butterflies, for example, are tiny but its easy to spot them as they alight on blooming flowers because of their unusual blue color.

The butterflies on this custom handmade quilt remind me of some of the butterflies on our Butterflies Lap Quilt throws which, interestingly enough, also feature blue colors.

The story behind this quilt and who quilted it, Faye Melear! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

So much to like about this custom quilt story, too. This is a unique design, combining the center patchwork wheel design with the applique butterflies and flowers. And even a nicer surprise, the custom handmade quilt was quilted by Faye Melear, who for years has contributed to making some of our custom handmade quilts.

Nicely done, Carol Creighton!

Charlotte

Unique Butterfly Handmade Quilt

This one of a kind butterfly quilt combines old-fashioned with current designs. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Unique Butterfly Handmade Quilt

We have made dozens of custom, one of a kind handmade quilts for our customers and this unique butterfly handmade quilt is still one of my personal favorites.

Combining an old-fashioned butterfly patchwork design, we combined the old-fashioned patchwork butterfly in a variety of different colors with the more contemporary flower blocks in the center of the blocks.

I have seen both all butterfly quilts and all floral quilts but have yet to see a combination of flowers and butterflies. Since butterflies depend on flowers for nectar as flight fuel, it seemed appropriate to add flowers to the quilt design.

A close up of the butterfly quilt blocks and flower corner blocks. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Butterflies are among the pollinators currently threatened by our rapidly changing climate and less foraging area.

To help all pollinators, we all should be planting less grass and more flowers and trees so pollinators have healthy food sources.

This unique butterfly patchwork quilt celebrates the relationship between butterflies and flowers and serves as a reminder we should be planting more flowers!

Charlotte