Starting spring with some butterflies

Hello and happy spring!

The pattern for the April Minis and More Parade is Mini Painted Ladies by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. and I can't think of a better way to start off spring than with a Parade of butterflies!   

These are a few of my Painted Lady butterflies.  

I decided I liked them so much that I'm making twelve additional butterflies to make a total of twenty four, so you won't see my mini here this week.  I'm still sewing.....

Yesterday in my Florida backyard, we spotted what I think is an Easter Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and last week I was surprised to see a Monarch.

Fortunately, my milkweed plants are coming back nicely, so the butterflies should have plenty of food when they need it.

If your backyard is still too cold for you to be spotting butterflies and that appears to be many of you, no worries, you can see plenty here today!

We lived in Maine for a few years, so I certainly know how that cold weather feels!


Here are some fabric butterflies for you to enjoy.

These beautiful butterflies, were made by Mary, from the blog Needled Mom.  She made her project square so it could be used as a table topper.  Mary gifted this to her mom and her mom was especially thrilled since these are her favorite colors.  I think anyone would be thrilled to receive this butterfly mini as a gift!  Great quilting, Mary!  Oh, speaking of quilting, I just had to include a picture of the back of Mary's project too.  I love that you can see Mary's quilting so well on the solid white on the back.  

Here's an adorable little potholder made by Patty D. of Elm Street Quilts.  I think this was the perfect way to bring spring into her kitchen!  The bright blues and the straight line quilting really make the butterfly pop off the potholder.  I like the variety of ways that people are using the featured pattern this month.  It's fun to see the pattern put to so many different uses.  I may have to make a Painted Ladies potholder of my own for my kitchen!  

And don't forget to visit Sherri McConnell's blog, A Quilting Life to see the rest of the Painted Ladies Mini quilt Parade.

For the May 1st Parade, I'm so excited that we'll be using Sherri's brand new pattern  Be My Neighbor Mini!  

   

Picture courtesy of Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life Designs.

You'll only need a charm pack and some extra fabric to make this adorable little house quilt.

I love the detail in the houses!

This pattern was just released by Sherri along with her other new patterns and Sherri and Chelsi's new fabric line Clover Hollow.

I'm thinking about color combinations for those cute houses right now.....

  

You can pick up a Be My Neighbor Mini pattern in Sherri's Etsy Shop  or at The Fat Quarter Shop.  They're available now!

Let's start construction!

Are you new to the Minis and More Parade or are you just wondering how it works? 

Feel free to send me an email with any questions you might have.  Sherri and I always love to have new participants and we love to make new quilting friends!