Butterfly Cage

Have you been wanting to create a quilted wall hanging with just a little bit of applique in it? I added four beautiful butterflies to this quilt. Wouldn’t this make a precious gift for a baby?

Butterfly Cage
23″ x 33″

Equipment

• Sewing Machine
• 16-inch pillow insert
• Basic Sewing Tools
• Thread
• Quilt Ruler
• Rotary Cutter
• Cutting Mat
• Clover Flower Head Pins
• Binding Clips
• Clapper – excellent for setting seams
• Wool Pressing Mat
• Lighting

Materials

• Cream batik – ½ yard (for quilt and border)
• Teal batik – ¼ yard or a fat quarter
• Floral print batik – 1 yard (for quilt, border and binding)
• Scraps of batiks for butterflies
• Template for butterfly
• Heat n Bond Lite
• Backing- 1 yard
• Batting – 1 yard

Cutting

Cream batik

• cut (4) 5½-inch squares
• cut (28) 1 3/4-inch squares
• cut (8) 3-inch squares

Teal batik

• cut (14) 3-inch squares

Floral batik

• cut (14) 3-inch squares
• cut (4) 5½-inch squares

Borders and binding are cut separately.

Stitch and Flip Method

Use the stitch and flip method for making the quilt blocks.

Large print batik blocks – make 4

• Use (2) 3-inch cream squares for each 5½-inch print square
• Draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of the cream square using a Frixon pen (I like using this type of pen because the line disappears when you iron it. You could also use a pencil.)
• Place the cream square in the corner of your print block with right sides together and stitch a scant seam along the line (stitch one thread length away from the line toward the corner, this makes a more accurate seam)
• Fold and press
• Trim ¼-inch away from stitching
• Repeat this for the corner on the opposite side

Small print and teal blocks – make 14 of each color

• Use (1) 1 3/4-inch cream square for each 3-inch print or teal square
• Draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of the cream square using a Frixon pen (I like using this type of pen because the line disappears when you iron it. You could also use a pencil.)
• Place the cream square in the corner of your block with right sides together and stitch a scant seam along the line (stitch one thread length away from the line toward the corner, this makes a more accurate seam)
• Fold and press
• Trim ¼-inch away from stitching
• Each block has only one corner done with the stitch and flip method

I originally made this quilt using my AccuQuilt cutter and dies but I wanted you to see how to make the blocks by rotary cutting them. I didn’t have any more of the batik print but found one that was very similar. Can you see the difference?

Sew with a ¼-inch seam allowance

• Grab your small quilt blocks and using 2 teal and 2 of the print batik, sew them together to make a 5½-inch square
• Make (7) blocks

Applique Butterfly blocks

Add an applique butterfly to each of the (4) cream 5½-inch squares.

• Apply Heat n Bond Lite to the back of the scrap batiks following directions on the package
• Choose your favorite way to applique
• I’m not crazy about hand stitching so I used a Micron pen to draw the antennas on my blocks.

Layout your blocks as shown below, I sewed the butterfly blocks together first and then added the top and bottom row.

Once you sew all of the blocks together your quilt should measure 15½” x 25½”.

First border

• Print batik – cut (4)—2-1/2″ strips for the first border
• Add the border to the sides first and then the top and bottom
• Measure your quilt on both sides and see if your measurements are different than mine.
• Sides – cut (2) 2½” x 25½” pieces, sew and press toward the border
• Top and bottom – cut (2) 2½” x 19½” pieces, sew and press toward the border

Second border

• Cream batik – cut (4)—2-1/2″ strips for the second border
• Add the border to the sides first and then the top and bottom
• Measure your quilt on both sides and see if your measurements are different than mine.
• Sides – cut (2) 2½” x 29½” pieces, sew and press toward the border
• Top and bottom – cut (2) 2½” x 23″ pieces, sew and press toward the border

Add your backing and batting.

Quilt as desired, I did a simple free motion stipple pattern. Add binding using my easy machine binding tutorial.

You can do any type of applique on the butterflies and either do it before you quilt or after. I decided to use Aurifil Clear Invisible Monofilament thread and did a free motion squiggle around the butterflies. You can also see how I drew the antennas with a brown Micron pen.

If you like this quilt, be sure and take a look at the Sienna table topper that uses the same blocks but doesn’t have any applique.

I have the Butterfly Cage quilt hanging in the basement right outside of the guest bedroom.

How about making this in Christmas fabrics and a Christmas tree or poinsettia as the applique?

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! This blog post has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing.

Purchase an ad-free printable PDF version of the Butterfly Cage quilt tutorial in my shop. The photos have been reduced in size, there is a full-size template for the butterfly applique and the tutorial is 7 pages long.

Get the Butterfly Cage PDF

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