March 31, 2012

Winter Dresden Plate Quilt

Spring has sprung,
 but I still have some Winter designs in my quilting thoughts.



I joined the fun with the Bunny Hill Scrappy Plates Club
starting in January.
This is my first time sewing along with a project like this, 
and I'm having great time!

{If you haven't discovered Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill, you're in for a treat!}

The project makes great use of Darlene Zimmerman's EZ Dresden Ruler, which I found for a great price here.


I knew I had one already, 
but I couldn't find it until AFTER I had ordered a new one. 
 {A glimpse into my "real world"...sigh.}
But that's okay, because I also ordered another new template, 
which will be featured someday in another post.

January began with a burst of activity.  
We gathered up our "scrappy" fabrics and cut dozens of blades for the plates.  I chose to use my layer cake of Winter by Minick and Simpson from Moda.


I sliced and sorted my blades...each plate needs 20 blades, 
and there are 12 plates in the quilt.  


I made some extras, because I want to make a couple of pillows, too!


{I even had a wee bit of extra layer cake fabric left, 
so this is a great choice of precut to use for this project.}

Here are chains of blades, stitched at the ends.


They were all pressed into the pointed wedge shape...


Here they are, stacked on my winter cake pedestal.  


Yummy, huh?


But we weren't finished yet!  The blades were stitched together in groups of 20, and pressed into beautiful "plates."


Now they really looked good enough to eat!


For February, the plates were appliqued onto the background squares.  Hmmm...since Winter is now out of print and hard to find, I chose a red gingham from Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree Quilts from Moda.
I ran short and needed to buy a bit more, just for that last block.
{AFTER that, I found one more yard of the gingham in my stash.  A theme emerges...}
But that's okay...I have so many big plans for that red gingham!

I straight-stitched my plates to the background...


Then I used HeatNBond to fuse my center circles in place.  
I used my machine to blanket-stitch the centers.
  

{My favorite stitch!}
  


Ready for the next step...uh-oh!  Today is March 31st, and I have not done the March step.  And I have to be at work by 2:30 p.m. today.



 Not to worry...
the Bunny Hill Scrappy Plate Club gals are very sweet, 
and they won't mind if I catch up later!

In fact, why don't you join us now, if you haven't already?
Catch some more inspiration at our Flickr group!




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5 comments:

  1. Wow, such a lot of work, but everything looks so lovely! I look forward to seeing the next step and the ones after that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MUY LINDO TU BLOG.
    TUS TRABAJOS PRECIOSOS LOS BOLSOS MUY LINDOS.
    SALUDITOS

    ReplyDelete
  3. Too gorgeous! And I love blanket stitch too!

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  4. This is so cute. I love the colors. I'm working on a Dresden Plate quilt right now, too. It's in peaches and creams and I am a handquilter and sewer so it is taking me awhile. I love the Darlene Zimmerman E-Z Dresden ruler. Made cutting out so much easier.

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