Whimsical Dresden quilt – making part 2
It feels like ages I have been working on this quilt. In actuality it’s been two weeks.
It has not been dreaded work like difficult quilts tend to become after hours and hours spent on them. This one has been exciting to watch it come together. And I’ve been excited to get to the end so I can see it.
The part 1 of this post is located here.
I mentioned in an earlier post that my sewing machine quilt working and I had to purchase a new one while that one is in the shop, lots of reasons why, but that single little tool that lets you move your leg to raise up the presser foot has made sewing down these dresden’s a dream. A dream, I tell you!!
Dresdens are all stop and go, stop and go, and that really helps to have that. I’ll go into details about the machine and it’s lovely features soon.
But you can see it at the bottom of the picture below (the little silver bar). My bernina has one as well, I’ve just never used it before. Now I know.
Here are a few of my favorite of the dresden plate blocks that I’ve made.
I have mentioned that I am using the quilt as you go method for this quilt.
I sewed /quilted each dresden down onto the background and batting, along with the center circles. Then, I pieced them altogether. And after that I will baste them onto the backing fabrics. And the final step will be to FMQ the negative spaces.
Even with my batting cut perfectly it was difficult to get perfect seam allowances using this method. Batting tends to expand after being quilted on.
Another slight con with this method was the bulk of the seams. Not crazy bulky, I did press all the seams open to try and eliminate some of this, but there was still bulk.
With that said, if I made another dresden quilt I think I would use the same method again.
I like the dresden edges to be quilted, not just sewn down onto the background block. It feels and looks nice.
And I like to FMQ every single quilt, but I don’t want to FMQ on top of the dresdens. One day, if I ever own a longarm this will change, but for now this is my method.
This is the ONLY quilt I have ever used the quilt as you go method.
This was a massive quilt. It’s king size, 108″ square.
My arms ached while hauling this quilt from here to there. I did still wall baste, but my husband had to help me get the quilt up there. It was just crazy heavy.
Quilt Pattern Details
King size quilt measures: 108×108″
block measures: 12.5″ unfinished. 81 blocks in 9 rows by 9.
(I did have a few panels used in this quilt that took the place of some of the dresden blocks)
Fabric Cutting:
Cut (27) 12.5″ x WOF. Subcut each into (3) 12.5″ squares. (there is some waste there, but I used it as some of the dresden blades so it didn’t actually go to waste).
Cut 1,460 dresden blades at 3.5″. I used all scraps.
Cut (81) interfaced circles using template. I used a vase bottom as my template.
Tools Used to Create This Quilt
Helpful Links
The Whimsical Dresden Quilt – the making part 1
Majority of fabrics I used for this quilt
Xo, melanie
