Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Dare to Dresden Blog Hopping Progressiveness

Hello there!  thanks for dancing along on the Dare to Dresden Blog Hop!
Sponsored by the perpetually inspiring Madame Samm and Cheerleader Extraordinaire Christine L of Quilt Monster in my Closet

This blog hop is a feast for the eyes!  Who knew a design like 'Dresden Plate' could have so much variety?  ...be so modern and fresh?  ...and be sew popular among quilters of all ages?

I have to confess, a friend of mine has an antique Dresden quilt that I have always admired made during the 30's - with those wonderful, cheerful colors we quilters know so well... unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it to share with you, but I did draw out a similar design in EQ7...
  the thing is... that classic Dresden quilt I crave also has a pieced border that involves lots of those little wedges in a scalloped effect.... and I still don't know enough about EQ7 to draw custom scalloped borders - so try to imagine this with a couple hundred little red segments going all around the edges!  Yup, some day I'll make that quilt.  Really I will... it's on my bucket list!

In the meantime, however, I can share this with you - although this quilt has had an interesting journey from my sewing room to many places and back again!

It all started with Flickr... a splinter group from Old Red Barn quilt-along called Around the Bend and Across the Pond joined forces to create progressive quilts - the kind where you make a block or a row and pass it along each month - each person adds to it and sends it along to the next person on the 'tour' until the 'finished' top comes home to the originator.

I joined the sub-splinter group - the "Free Form Robin: Be Free Bees"  yes there were so many who participated - we had to become TWO groups - the A's and the B's - who decided to proceed with very few 'rooles' (if any) and sent this off to the first unsuspecting victim er participant:  
I had made the Dresden block from a few sample strips just to 'test the waters' of a new template.  I liked it a lot, but had no idea what to do with it after it had lurked around my sewing room, on and off the design wall for almost a decade.  Sew, last January - a whole year ago - I packed it up with a siggie block, a journal and a few of the fabrics that I had intended to use with it...
...and kept my fingers crossed for about eight months!

I didn't have any rooles for my starter - just a few fabrics to inspire and a plea that no one would use ALL of these fabrics and not leave any for the next participating quilter!

My quilt top underwent many mysterious and marvelous journeys (with progress pics posted to Flickr, of course!) and returned to me in August 2012.  After debating with myself for several months about how to quilt it, this is what I did:
it is very closely quilted...
... with bright "orange glow" OMNI thread... by Superior - seriously, that's the name of the color!  ORANGE GLOW --- LOVE IT!!!!
And - I'm thrilled that another participant decided to add two MORE Dresden plates to the corners - still leaving me enough of my original fabrics to use for the binding!  All of the little siggie blocks are pieced into the back.  I feel sew fortunate -I love how this quilt turned out - I hope you do too!

Now, if you haven't already been there, be sure to visit the other bloggers today. 

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”
Granny Good Stuff (you are here!)
 
 
 


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Dare to Dresdent blog hop

Thanks to Madame Samm and the loverly Christine at Quilt Monster in My Closet for hosting and assisting with this exciting blog hop!  Here is the schedule - you don't want to miss any of this Daring Dresden fun!  My day will be January 30th - I'll be sharing my latest and greatest then - meanwhile, enjoy what the others are showing....


January 24th, 2013

January 25th, 2013
January 28th, 2013
Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”
January 30th, 2013
Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”
January 31th, 2013

Saturday, January 5, 2013

a little FOCUS, a lot of progress

My word of the year for last year was FOCUS - and it worked well!  I had my long dreaded cataract surgery, can now drive without glasses, and can do most things sans glasses, except thread a needle!  I  also have been trying to FOCUS on ONE THING at a TIME!  I'm easily distracted, see, so, ummm....

Yesterday I f-i-n-a-l-ly finished quilting my "Golden Gate" quilt.  It is a Full Bed size - and is now ready for binding - and last night we slept under it!  so, today I'll bind it, but I love it more than I thought I would now that it's on the bed!  Somehow, once a quilt is on a bed, the little mistakes that upset me so much while I was quilting it just don't show up.  The overall effect puts the whole project into perspective.  Yes, Finished is much better than Perfect!

On Thursday, I spent most of the afternoon playing with paint - and my Gelli Plate - and whatever paper, card stock, or ______ I could find that I could smack some paint on!  I have been saving a couple of 'obsolete' spiral bound books full of maps - the paper is a little thin, but I love the way these came out with just a hint of the map showing through on most of the pages.  I also grabbed a drab brown photo storage box that needed a little interest and put a bit of paint on the lid & sides of that.  It needs much more paint... so maybe I'll get to smear some more paint around later today - after I get that binding on - painting is too much fun.  I'm thinking of painting cigar boxes next...

Oh, I almost forgot - I'll be a participant in the "Dare to Dresden" blog hop - see the link button on the right... my day is January 30th!  I have a quilt to share (at the moment it's a flimsy) and at least one other Dresden block is already finished - more to come!  Mark your calendar!

If I remember, I'll edit this and insert some pictures of the Gelli Plate results....  given time - and focus!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Gelli Plate fun... and planning

I have a Gelli Plate, and this week there is a Gelli Plate Party going on - it's a linky party... you should check it out... HERE

I'm having fun - hope you are too!

...and... I'm trying to sort out whether some of my really ancient, old UFO's are worth the time it will take to finish them, or whether they would be just as useful as landfill... since some are already 20 years old or more... and I won't live forever!