Here’s a beginner-friendly appliqué butterfly and stars quilt that looks great as a scrappy quilt or with your favorite fabric collection!
Fly Away is my newest pattern release of this year. It measures 56″ x 68″, and the blocks finish at 9″. I worked with the Pixie Patch collection by Lumin Fabrics. If you want your quilt to look just like mine, wait a little, as the collection will ship to stores in January 2027. In the meantime, you can make a scrappy quilt using your batiks or other fabrics you have on hand.
As you already expect, I designed Fly Away using EQ8. It makes my life so much easier, as I can audition fabrics with a single click, helping me decide quickly where to place all the fabrics I am working with.
This is the machine appliqué block, featuring a simple butterfly made with 2 fabrics. I repeated the colorway on all 4 blocks, but you can make each one with a different color. For the appliqué, I matched the thread to the fabrics and used the blanket stitch on my Bernina.
Beginner quilters will appreciate the large size of each of the butterfly’s parts – easy to trace on the paper side of fusible adhesive (I love HeatnBond), then fuse to the background, and machine appliqué with your favorite stitch. For quilts that will be used and washed frequently, I like to apply Fray Check around the edges after I stitch them. I do not usually do that when making wall-hangings, as they are hardly ever washed.
Click here to see another quilt pattern I designed with butterflies and machine appliqué. It has a detailed tutorial of how I do it, including a video.
The star blocks alternate: a dark fabric in the center with lighter fabric on the legs, or a light fabric in the center with dark fabric on the legs. If you are making yours scrappy, I would choose a combination (dark center/light legs or the reverse) and stick with it regardless of the fabrics you use. This way, no matter how busy it is, there will still be some harmony to it.
Ahhh, the colorway… Purples and blues are so appealing together. I played with the values of these two colors to add depth and texture to the quilt design. Notice how light the sashing is, and the first border showcases a very soft aqua batik – you can barely see it.
The blocks come together fast. Just make hourglass blocks, turn them this way and that, and stitch them to the center square. The diagrams in the pattern will guide you through block construction and quilt assembly, so there is no guesswork involved.
The border fabric provided the inspiration for the butterfly blocks. The batiks in this collection have amazing motifs and texture, and I am glad I had the opportunity to feature them in this quilt.
I often let the motifs on fabrics inspire the quilt design. Do you? Next time you look at a fabric print you like, consider turning one of the motifs into appliqué blocks. Then, sprinkle the blocks on the quilt. I opted for a more symmetrical look by arranging them on the corners.
The last border looks wider than it actually is because I repeated the same fabric on the binding. I like this trick and use it frequently in my quilt designs. It frames the design much as a frame does around a painting.
This appliqué butterfly and stars quilt can be customized with novelty fabrics, solids, or a muted colorway. One pattern, so many possibilities! You can display large prints in the center squares or butterfly wings, too.
Of course, if you NEED fabric to make this quilt because your stash is DEPLETED (right), Connecting Threads is having a sitewide 20% off sale this weekend, so go there and stock up! [Some of the links on this post are affiliate links – when you click on them and purchase something, I may receive a small commission on the sale without impacting your purchase price.]
I am thinking you need a new project for this holiday weekend, correct? You can purchase and download the Fly Away pattern from my Etsy store.
Enjoy the long holiday, and happy sewing!
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