Dresden Quilted!

Well here it is, my last finish of the year, my Dresden Plate quilt!    The fabrics are a cute winter collection called  JOL by Moda and the sashing is brown Essex Linen.   All the information about how I made and appliqued the blocks can be found in this earlier post here.    I wanted the quilting to be traditional so did feathers ( because I love feathers)  on the outer border and in the horizontal sashing.  I wasn’t sure what to do in the vertical sashing and my friend Desley suggested the Egg and Dart design which was perfect. I even took that diamond shape and added it to the Dresden centers.  I also added an extra circle of batting to each center circle, I just tucked it in where I cut the background fabric to take out the freezer paper.    I did a stipple in the background and loops in the Dresden petals.   

I used two different colors of thread on top, a white So Fine for the stipple and a medium brown So Fine for the rest.    I used a grey Bottom Line on the back and it played well with the white on top, no tension issues.  The batting is Quilters Dream Blend batting.

I’m so happy to have my clear lake ice this year, it’s been a few years since the conditions have been just right.  The lake froze fast with little snow on top so that helped create the clear ice.  Its about 20’'  thick now so we have been going for walks out on the lake since there is only about 4 inches of snow on the ground so that makes easy walking.  We didn’t get the blizzard that hit the southern part of our province on Christmas.

Took me about 20 times to flip out the quilt to get it to land just right without having to put any foot prints in the snow!  Its a great feeling when you finally get it to land right where you want it. I have been asked by other bloggers how I do this ( no footprints) and it is just persistence.