Let the people choose: Butterflies!

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching has long hosted a monthly People’s Choice link up, and this month it is Butterflies!

I absolutely love butterflies. I always have. When I was a Girl Scout, I earned my Gold Award (which is roughly equivalent to a Boy Scout’s Eagle Project) and my project was planting a large butterfly garden in a public park. It has been then for nearly 25 years and my dad still tends it a bit-incredible that it is still there! (If I can find a picture I will put it in here)

Here in Arizona, I have always planted lots of butterfly attracting plants around my yard, and several years we have collected monarch and queen caterpillars to raise indoors in order to protect them from predatory wasps and flies. One year we even participated in a monarch tagging program! That was before we had 5 children! Now I just let them manage on their own (the butterflies, not the children!) but I still am thrilled when we get these magical visitors in our yard.

As for stitching you would think I’d have stitched many butterflies! I certainly have lots of butterfly charts! But actually I have not stitched too many. There are only a few on display in my house on a Drawn Thread sampler and a Just Nan birth record:

Not at my house but I hope still being enjoyed by the recipients are these butterflies on very old projects I made as gifts for my first, and favorite, boss, and for my mom:

And that is really all I can find among my stitched pieces. For projects “in the wings” so to speak, I really MUST do my Mill Hill Butterfly kits. They are in my to-do list every year. Maybe I should make one for my July small!

And hopefully someday I’ll get to my Blackbird Designs charts that feature butterflies:

And while I’ll probably not ever get around to stitching these charts, I love them and will keep them”a while longer”

Finally I have a large “aspirational” project, a vintage crewel pillow which I bought because I love the butterflies:

I wonder if I will feel confident enough to make this someday? I should, right, especially given that my current projects featuring butterflies are considerably more challenging! Because of course, if you read my blog from time to time you know I am working on some very fancy butterfly projects. In fact I have a triumph! I have finished all the wings for the Amy Mitten Butterfly! AND I even was able to get the body done yesterday while the family watched a movie! Ta Dah!

Isn’t it cool? I just love this project. That body is actually made of fabric covered drinking straws that have threads (silk and chenille) woven around them. The instructions have been so good on this ingenious, clever project and that makes it completely manageable for someone like me who is new to all these techniques. Now I need to make the legs and assemble this thing! I will have it done in July, barring any mishaps! Hooray! *By the way, yes I did redo my first problem wing, I had plenty of thread, and I am so glad I did. It came out much, much better the second time around.

If you want to see more butterflies, head back to Jo’s!