TGIFF - Butterfly Cushion

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first TGIFF party of 2025 😊 I have another cushion finish to share today. I very rarely make cushions, but I've now made three in less than a month! You can see the first two here. 

Zach's girlfriend Brianna's favourite colour is purple, so I decided to make her a purple butterfly cushion for Christmas. (they're exchanging gifts when they get back to university next week).

I used the butterfly from my Scraps Take Flight pattern and all the squares were already cut, so it came together really quickly. I love digging into my scraps, even if it's only for a handful of squares! If you want to get your scraps organized in a way that makes sense for the kind of quilts you make, download my Escape Scrap Overwhelm guide.

The cushion insert I have (stolen from my Stay Cozy cushion, lol) is 14", so I planned to make the cushion cover 14" as well. I made the butterfly, then started cutting the background fabric to make the borders to bring it up to size, which is when I discovered I only had enough to make the cushion cover 13 ½". I pretty much just shrugged and kept going. I figured if the insert was too big to fit, I could always remove some of the stuffing to make it work.

It's amazing how a little bit of applique turns a few squares into a butterfly!

Once the front was pieced, I basted it together with a scrap of Warm and Natural batting (yay for using some from my batting scrap box!), and a fabric for the back that will always be hidden inside the cushion. Basting is my least favourite part of the process, so I like that it goes much faster when the quilt is so small.

I used Aurifil 2600 to quilt around the body of the butterfly to secure it. I went around it three times, intentionally trying to wobble a teeny bit to make the lines more distinct.

I used Aurifil 2540 to quilt around the butterfly wings, then quilted long teardrop shapes in the wings.

Then I used Aurifil 2024 for the background. First I stitched right at the edge of the butterfly, then echoed that about ¼" away. 

Finally, I quilted small double loops all over the background. I'm usually reminding myself to quilt bigger when I quilt this motif, so it was fun to quilt it small for a change.

This pretty purple from Island Batik was the perfect choice for the back of the cushion. I cut the back pieces 10" high, but should have made them shorter as they overlap a little too much.

We don't have many throw cushions in our house, but they sure are fun (and fast!) to make. Hopefully Brianna will like this one as much as I do!

That's my finish for this week. Now it's your turn! What have you finished recently? Any Christmas present makes you can share now that they've been gifted? Link up your finishes below, and be sure to visit some of the other links to celebrate their finishes, too.

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