quilt first then add applique?
 

looks like I should quilt this first then add the butterflies?[ATTACH=CONFIG]547519[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]547520[/ATTACH]they do look like butterflies right?

That's what I would do too. Cute butterflies, is it on a baby quilt. Babies love to grab and hold.

I have done it both ways. It depends how you plan to quilt it. I typically applique before cutting my pieces because applique causes the fabric to slightly shrink the background fabric. Heavy starch & a tear away stabilizer help some, but it's inevitable that there will be some shrinkage. I find I get less shrinking with hand applique than with machine applique so if you plan to machine applique it, I'd definitely do that first so you have the opportunity to re-block your top before quilting it. With hand applique, it is not easy to get your needle in & out of the middle of your sandwich on curved edges; my stitches always end up sloppier when I try, so I typically make sure to add all applique before I start quilting. Plus, my needles get bent quite quickly when working with a quilted sandwich because I can't see & I'm trying to only go halfway down. The other advantage is that when you are quilting, you can quilt around the "ditch" of the applique to make it puff up & do your filler around it. Looks super cute & then you can see the outline of the butterfly both front & back.

On the other hand, if you plan to take it to a LA for panto design, then yes, I'd do the applique later & I'd do it by hand.

it is a baby quilt, for a young lady I haven't seen in years. We became fb friends last year. I am so thrilled for her, she had such a wretched childhood. Now she's married an architect and having a boy.

It's really adorable, briskgo. I'm sure Mom & Baby will love it. The little ones really enjoy dimensional applique. I did one of those for my niece when she turned one. She kept trying to eat all the little puffy applique flowers during tummy time. It was so adorable (I had stitched them down very, very well, so there was no pulling them off). No doubt your quilt will be a family treasure.

Do you want to stitch down the bottom wings or are they suppose to be 3D free? If the wings are to be free, I would just stitch down the body and then pin back the wings for quilting underneath them.

both wings will be up, sewing the body part down