All Quilted And Headed To The Finished Line

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I made myself a promise the other day.

Only sew projects that fit inside the throat area of my sewing machine.

Anything larger and my stress level shoots off the chart. My panic button gets pushed so often, it is completely worn out. Sewing is supposed to be fun. Relaxing. Not stressful.

I had dreaded starting on this quilt top.

I knew I would be up to Excedrin #999 by the time I finished. And oh yes, did I ever struggle. It is only 54″ by 54″ but I had to push, pull, tug and cuss. Even with my quilting gloves with the grippers. (Cussing helped some. 😀 )

But… the quilting part is FINALLY FINISHED!! I worked on it off and on for a week.

If you look closely you will see that I appliqued the Dresden Plate wedges and centers by machine to the center of each 9 square block.

Then sewed straight lines around each 9 square block. Next I stippled around the wedges keeping the stitches within each block and not overflowing to the next. My plan was to do loops inside the ivory border but decided to leave it as is. Then I stippled the brown polka dot border.

Last step. I still have to sew on the binding.

I am totally happy with how it looks thus far. I have it hanging in my newly organized “closet” for me to admire.

Here’s the back.

Notice my fabric stash. My reorg is looking great, eh? By color. I have little piles of each. Except for those fabrics with really busy prints in numerous colors.

They got pushed into several Catch-All groupings.

My charm packs are stored here in these fabric cubes.

The whole reorg thing is still a works-in-progress. Slowly it is coming together like I want. Hopefully seeing all the neatness will inspire me to create more.

Three more quilt tops to go. All larger than this one. 😦 All made months ago. 😦 The brown and cream Log Cabin one, the purple and lavender Stair Steps one and the blue jeans quilt.

Got to catch up. And then I will keep reminding myself of the promise I made. If I can’t machine quilt it stressfree, don’t make it.

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You can read about the making of this quilt here.

https://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/a-plate-full-of-dresdens/

https://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/going-small-with-the-dresdens/

https://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/made-a-pieced-back-for-my-dresden-plate-quilt/

https://thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/the-new-back-is-finished/

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Back-To-School Quilt

I am still working through my “old” novelty fabric stash. The fabric on the right with the black background and colorful alphabet letters has been around for years.

I used some of it to make a couple of quick simple purses and had about a yard left. I only recently discovered some of the letters of the alphabet were missing. I couldn’t spell out my name. How weird is that!!

With schools opening soon, the idea of making a Back-to-School quilt seemed like a good idea. A mini quilt or lap quilt for a child. I gathered up several other fabrics and got started cutting out the pieces. Dresden Plate wedges. One of my favorites to work with.

I changed my mind after making this block and decided to go longer.

Added two more wedges to balance it out. 10 wedges per strip.

Here are four strips sewn together with black fabric with tiny white dots for sashing. And also black polka dots. (You knew polka dots would be here somewhere, right? 😀 )

Let’s see… we have Math, Spelling… how about some Music!!

Making progress. Two complete sections done.

When deciding on the final borders Log Cabin style, I really wanted to somehow bring this yellow numerical fabric into the mix. I tried it on the sides. But it stuck out too much. Even consulted my “color expert” (hubby). He has a great eye for color. I looked at him and he was shaking his head. OK. No bright yellow.

As you can see here, I used my Go-To-Fabric, my beautiful black polka dots. Always handy. I am thinking of buying an entire bolt the next time a JoAnn’s 50% off coupon lands on my doorstep.

So… the quilt top is finished. And now I have to decide on the fabric for the back, quilt it and add the binding.

Unless I change my mind, this will be the binding.

Right now it measures 42″ by 54″.

Dresden Plate Wall Hanging Is Finished!!

Come on in and looky at my quilted wall hanging. I even put a label on it. I never want to forget my first quilted item.

I spelled it right. It just looks all weird. I need more practice with sewing fonts and figuring out how to put in a space. I had to use dashes.

Drumroll………

Binding is on.

Everything that needed to be hand stitched is done.

It measures 22″ by 21 1/2″.

Ready For The Binding

Well, I am happy to tell you my bonding with my Walking Foot went well. I have had my Janome 10001 sewing machine for over four years but had never used that foot. Had to refer to my manual on how to attach it. Glad I looked first. I wouldn’t have thought to put that long arm thingy on top of the foot holder bar.

It works great!! Walking along. Giving me a smooth stitch. Had no problems whatsoever.

Here’s what I did in about 4 hours. Going very slowly.

First, I sewed in the ditch starting from the center circle of the Dresden blades going down each seam. All the way diagonally to the edge of the quilt top.

I thought the single diagonal line looked odd so I added a short line to cross over it. Then I decided to fancy up the black dotted fabric. I made long straight lines down the length of the border. About 1/4″ apart. I wish I could have used my 1/4″ foot but did the best I could on my own.

Now it is ready for the binding. I am going to use up some of these green strips I fussy cut from the goose panels I told you about. The ones from the 80’s.

And then, by golly, IT WILL BE DONE. I even bought some Color Catcher. Gonna wash and dry it. And hang it up in my craft room to admire. My first ever quilted wall hanging.

It measures about 22″ by 22″.

Next, I plan to tackle one of the three larger ones. Probably my 1st quilt top. If I mess it up, I won’t care as much. It already has lots of flaws. 😀

The Next Time You See Me, I Will Be Quilted

I know, I know. I can hardly keep all of my projects straight myself. Juggling so many!!

But I am determined to get one thing quilted this week if it kills me. And I think it will be this. I wanted to do something small first.

Points of the Dresden Plate have been machine sewn. I was going to hand sew them but said, hey, what the heck, how badly could I do. I think I did OK. Only see a spot or two that’s off.

I also sewed around the center circle. So no flopping around.

Layers are sprayed and pinned. So I think I am ready.

The “New” Back Is Finished

This is the NEW back I am going to use for my Dresden Plate quilt. I made it 4 inches wider/longer than the quilt top. All of the instructions I read in books and on-line said the back should be between 3-4 inches larger than the quilt top. Just to be on the safe side, I went with 4″. I can use whatever is cut off as strips for other projects.

Now I have to sew the plates onto the front. And then the sewing part will be done. It will just need to be quilted.

I like this so much, I am going to make another one.

A Whole Lot Of Cutting Going On

It took me all of one day to cut out all of these 5 1/2″ squares. I don’t trust my cutting skills enough to cut through multiple layers. So I have to cut one, cut another, cut another. One by one.

There’s over 200 squares in these two stacks.

The first stack I “thought” I knew what I was going to make. But after seeing them on my design wall, I am not so sure. I think I need something BOLD. Flowery or something with a big print to go in the empty spaces along the left and right sides. I may still go with this design. Just rearrange the colors. Looks like one end is all dark.

The little stack is for my “new” back for my Dresden Plate quilt. I ended up using the back I made for the front. So now I have to make a different back. I have an idea on how I want it to look. Just need to sit and sew for a spell.

And, guess what? You won’t believe it.

Yep. My first attempt at quilting. Free Motion Quilting. I was trying to do the Stippling stitch, but I tell ya, my hats are off to anyone coordinated enough to control the stitching to create a design. I had the toughest time. My stitches were loose and some skipped. I couldn’t get them adjusted properly. I tried the minus. The plus. And in between. Nothing worked to my satisfaction. I even had my manual out. I think I need to take a trip to the Janome sewing place to get some expert advice. And the videos on You Tube made it seem so easy. Not!! BUT… I am happy to get my feet wet. So glad I did a test run on some scrap fabric.

What If…..

What if the Back now becomes the Front?

This way…

Or this way.

I am just experimenting. 😀

Made A Pieced Back For My Dresden Plate Quilt

Trying something different for my Dresden Plate mini quilt. A pieced back, using most of the fabrics I used to make the plates plus I sneaked in a couple new fabrics as fillers.

I cut 5 1/2″ squares and made nine 9 patch blocks. Each block has one burnt orange square and one brown/white polka dot square. And the rest were randomly picked. The squares are all sewn together. Just need to sew the 9 patch blocks together.

Now… knowing what the back measurements will be, I can go about finishing up the front. And I do believe I am going to make 3 more plates for a total of nine. The finished quilt should be around 52″ by 52″.

You will be delighted to know that I am just about out of all of these fabrics EXCEPT FOR the Brown and White Polka Dots. I have tons of it!!

This is what I worked on yesterday and today. What have you been working on? 😀

No Brown In This One

Not quite the look of Spring but no brown either!! 😀

Black, green and mustard yellow with a touch of white. But first, before I go into the details of my newest Dresden Plate, let me ask you this…

Anyone remember this?

They were really popular in the 70’s and 80’s. Country themed fabric panels. I can’t remember if you bought them by the panel or by the yard. But I remember buying up a bunch of them in the early 80’s. And making up a bunch. Wall hangings on wicker mats and circular wooden hoops. I had the panels in green, blue, peach and of course, BROWN!!

Can you believe after all these years, I found 3 panels in my stash!! I fussy cut around the geese to get some flowered green pieces. Then I cut strips for borders where I could.

And after all that… I ended up removing what I thought were the prettiest blades. The ones I used to make hearts. Oh well. The plate was too large and some wedges had to go.

Which border arrangement do you like best? Or maybe I won’t add one.