must.stash for Cherry's boy

must.stash for Cherry's boy, a photo by badskirt - amy on Flickr.

Cherry asked for butterfly spool blocks for her month in the must.stash bee. You might recall, that I've made these before, but on a much smaller scale for a mini quilt for a swap. The quilt is for her young boy, so I aimed for "manlier" prints using blues, reds and Craig's favorite army greens. Cherry's blog loves Hawks yellow and Carlton blue (footy teams in Australia), but alas I had neither. Craig assures me that they'll make a boy happy.

Choosing the text strips for the center proved to be the hardest part for me. These were 1" wide. I haven't been hoarding text of that scale, but I did find some outer space and car text that I hope a young boy will like.  I've found it fascinating to compare Cherry's blocks to those I made for the quilt swap.


There are a lot of tutorials for this style block available on the internet, as well as Kumiko Fujita's book which seems to be the source of the black and text colour palette. What I find interesting is the subtle differences appear in the quilts. Not just because of fabric choice but because of proportions.

Minor changes in the width of the center strip or the slope of wings aka spools make for quite different visual effects. All beautiful in their own way.


I love the subtle, secondary basket weave pattern that develops from the center strips. Making a cushion or quilt in this layout has become somewhat of a rite of passage, it seems. Have you earned your merit badge?

Edit: Guess what! There's now a flickr group for these special blocks. It's small now, but growing quickly. Earn your merit badge or come along for inspiration.