Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Old World- A Modern Dresden Quilt

In the spring, The Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild will have a show at International Quilt Festival here in town. It's pretty neat to be representing modern quilting in a very large show full of jaw-droppingly beautiful traditional and art quilts. We had to have them done last week to get photos in to IQF. Even though it was a slightly inconvenient time to be rushing to finish a quilt, I'm so glad I participated. We will have over 20 quilts in the show, all of them a different modern take on dresden plates. 



 I've never made a dresden plate before. I knew I wanted mine to be completely round instead of having pointed blades, and I knew I wanted to have only a few of them in my quilt, along with lots of negative space. I've been wanting to do a quilt in all neutrals for a while now, so this high-contrast black and white design came to me. I started collecting prints that had no color and were either very low value or dark value. All of them came from Sewn Studio or Pink Castle. I used an easy dresden ruler to cut them, and after stitching all the blades together, I sewed a circle of muslin to the right sides of the circles, then cut the middle of the muslin away and turned it right side out so the edges would be turned under for appliquéing.


After making a background out of Moda Bella Black and Feather, (not quite white, more of a super pale gray) I stitched the circles to it with invisible thread. It was kind of pain to work with, but made the appliqué look really clean. There's really no other good way I could have done it. I did the center circles the same way, and then I was ready for quilting. 


Here on the back you can see better how I free-motion quilted in the dresdens (also with the invisible thread.) This is the first time I've quilted different areas of a quilt differently based on the design, rather than using an all-over quilting method. I drew some inspiration from Angela Walter's book, thanks to my mom. Even though I almost always prefer straight lines style-wise, I really want to keep getting better at it. 


After quilting those plume-like designs, I decided to torture myself by doing a gazilion curvy radiating lines 3/8" apart. Actually, it wasn't too bad and I enjoyed it for the most part. With that much white space, I really couldn't wuss out on the quilting. It had to be wowza quilting. The back has black in the same place as the front and then all my leftover lighter prints on the reverse of the white side. I even matched up the black and white sides on the binding. It finished around 70" x 60". 



I'm really happy with this quilt and feel it's so different from things I've done before. I learned a lot doing it. Nick says it's his favorite quilt yet so I'm giving it him... But not until after April. It's got to be pristine until show time!




21 comments:

  1. This quilt is beautiful. I love what you have done with this. And good luck in the show.

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  2. It is a work of art. Although am I the only one who thinks of records (vinyl)? It would be fantastic in any 2 colours, I think.

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  3. It. is. beautiful! You have done an amazing job on it!

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  4. Oh, it turned out wonderful. I'm sure it'll get a lot of attention at the quilt show.

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  5. LOVE it! I love the monochromatic and streamlined feel of the plates.

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  6. it's so pretty! i love all that negative space quilting. i wish i had the patience (never mind the skill) for something like that. swoon.

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  7. Wow it's amazing. You have done a great job :)

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  8. Really love it. Love that you stayed away from the temptation of color; it's perfect! Love the quilting too!

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  9. Fantastic quilt, Jessica! I'm always a fan of neutrals and this one is amazing. Your quilting came out so beautifully!

    I hope we get to the Cinci show again this year so I can see it in person.

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  10. Wow, congratulations! That quilt is really so different and I you tackled a lot of new things. Way to go!

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  11. Jessica, so stunning, and your quilting is excellent, can't wait to see it up close. You wow me every time, you have left me in the dust. Mom

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  12. The quilt reminds me of vinyl records, which is quite fitting since everything modern is really vintage retro at the moment! Your quilting is beautiful. Well done, and good luck in the show.

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  13. This is SO incredible! I don't know if I'd ever have the patience or skill to do a quilt!

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  14. This is stunning! It's great that you pushed yourself!

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  15. This is fabulous! Love, Love, LOVE it! Good luck with the show!

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  16. I love everything about this. EVERYTHING.

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  17. Did you use a walking foot on the curved lines in the white area?

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