I first saw this cute butterfly block tutorial on Four Wise Monkey’s blog and had to give it a try. She is quite creative and has lots of fun projects to check out on her blog. I liked it this butterfly block, but it had a lot of bulk in the center so I worked up a way to eliminate some of that and thought I would share my method here. I am new to writing tutorial so I hope this all makes sense, but following my own directions I was able to make these in about 20 minutes and it would be faster if you had them precut and chain pieced them together. Let me know what you would do with these cute blocks. I have a few ideas for mixing them with some other blocks for wall hangings or place mats or mug rugs…and on and on as the mind turns.
This will make a 6 ½” block.
Top wings
Cut: 1 – 4” Square of print fabric
1 – 4” square of background fabric
1. Mark a diagonal line on the background fabric and sew ¼” from each line then cut apart on the drawn line.
2. Iron the seam on one square toward the background and one toward the print.
3. Square up to 3 ½”
Bottom wings
6 - 2” squares of background fabric
1. Mark a diagonal line on the 6 background squares.
2. Place the first square on the top left corner of the wing square and sew on the drawn line. Cut ¼” from the seam.
3. Repeat for the bottom right corner on each block. Press seams toward 
4. Place the last 2” squares on the bottom left of each wing and sew on line. Trim to ¼” and press toward background.
5. Square all blocks up to 3 ½”.
Lay the 4 blocks out as shown and sew together matching center seams. I pressed the last seam down for the least bulk. Draw butterfly antennae and embroider.
Now start dreaming up ideas to use these in projects!
Here is a link to a PDF file I made for this.
Keep Sewin’!
Ferne
