Sunday 9 March 2014

DRESDEN PLATES AND HOLLYHOCKS

Sunday Shinanigans

This week seems to have just flown by, I have been making slow progress largely due to the fact that I am trying to many new things at once and there isn't a pattern I am following. I am really just making blocks that I find interesting or challenging, roughly the same size so I can smush them together with my eyes closed tightly, hoping it will magically look like a quilt when I open them!!!

So this weeks challenge was machine based applique, using the blanket stitch button on my machine...I think it will take a while yet for us to become friends but I am pleased with the result for a first attempt!
There are loads of flowers in the fairy fabric and I have used lots of floral fabrics already as my Granny loves them, so I thought I would keep up with the theme and make a block with Hollyhocks on it. I started by cutting out rough shapes that could be appliqued onto a stem like shape, in a variety of the fabrics I had already used.


I cut 21 squares using my main background fabric and mixed in one of my favorites- Moda French General, Feather- just for variety, it is such a lovely off white and blended in wonderfully. All squares measured 2 1/2 inches and were sewn together in 3 rows. 



All the 'flowers' were then placed along the stem getting smaller towards the top. I used Bondaweb to keep them from moving, as some of the pieces were very small I thought this would work better than pins!! It was very tricky trying to get the blanket stitch evenly around the smaller sections and admittedly I had to cheat in a few places but overall it turned out ok. Added on a quick border and that was another one done!!



I spend a great deal of time researching and 'just looking', I spend hours and hours on Pinterest, so much so that I am nearing 800 pins on my Quilty Pleasures board.......yikes!! One of the great finds I have had on there was a link to the Makeower website, where they have an abundance of free quilt patterns. I fell in love with one in particular- Dresden Plates and Downton Abbey- who wouldn't??



I started by cutting out all the pieces needed, this time I decided to use some of the lovely batiks I have collected for the fans and one of the large florals for the center quarters.


As I had 24 units to sew in half, the quickest and most efficient way was to chain piece them. A method I was taught that revolutionized my block making!! A great tutorial by Melissa Burt can be found over on Connecting Threads.




I followed the steps for construction as they were written and Voila! A twist on the Dresden.




I still have some places open in the Quilting Bee so let me know if you are interested and as always if you have any thoughts, suggestions or opinions about the post I'd love to hear from you.
Happy quilting!!

Kerry xx






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