UPCOMING MODERN HERO QUILT PROJECT

Our next Modern Day Hero quilt will honor Dolly Parton. We are celebrating Dolly for the light and good she brought to our world. Besides her incredible musical talent, Dolly was a generous philanthropist and she founded an amazing literacy program for children.

Dolly's quilt will be made of various butterfly blocks. Why butterflies? Dolly chose the butterfly as her personal symbol because she said its gentle, harmless, and colorful nature mirrored her own peaceful personality and kind spirit. Growing up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she spent hours chasing butterflies through the bushes and woods. She loved their beauty. 

Quilt(s) made from the butterfly blocks will be auctioned off to raise money for Dolly's Imagination Library.

Block Instructions:

The block options shown below are all paper-pieced, and all measure 5" x 5" finished. If you don't know how to paper piece, there are many great YouTube tutorials. The more paper piecing you do, the easier it gets. Just take your time and don't be in a hurry. Make sure to shorten your stitch length, and please leave in the paper; don't remove it. 

For these patterns, please make the body of the butterfly black or tone-on-tone black. The wings should be bright and cheerful. And the background should be a pastel color of a soft, subdued shade. You may use different pastels on different blocks. but only use one color of pastel for the background of each block. I really like to use batiks when I paper piece because then I don't need to worry about what is the right side or the wrong side of the fabric. 

Mail your completed blocks to me at: Donna DeSoto, 4916 Gadsen Drive, Fairfax, Virginia 22032. Please mail them as inexpensively as possible; there is no need to pay for overnight shipping! 

Due Date: November 7, 2026

PATTERNS to choose from:

Butterfly Charm Block Sample Images

This is a link to free instructions for three different butterflies:

https://lillyella.com/2015/09/02/butterfly-charm-block-paper-piecing-patterns/

Click on the link below for the patterns.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SQGkPMF7sAZn3D0OjlIkfFFcquo7AZWy/view

"Butterfly Block Vanessa" Pattern Image

Here is another paper-pieced pattern option designed thanks to  Barbara Hollinger. Her "Butterfly Block Vanessa" pattern to download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D2g07bKdjtnpFElUa-ISojz0yEio8lt7/view 

"Butterfly at Rest" Pattern Image

And this last pattern option is one designed by Liza Taylor. Thank you to Sandra Israel for recommending Astrid's beautiful book, Wonderful World of Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks (available by clicking HERE).

I contacted Liza about this project, and she graciously is allowing us to use this "Butterfly at Rest" pattern free of charge.

 

The "Butterfly at Rest" pattern is available to download by clicking here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iu8dU2OGdaz_sm3xqTTn2_uBTnEmolO8/view

The images above for the "Butterfly Block Vanessa" pattern and the "Butterfly at Rest" pattern might not print at the correct size.  Please click on the links below to download PDFs of the patterns, then print them and confirm they are the correct size by using the 1" Test Square at the bottom right of the PDFs.