Practicing for Dotty Dresden

In June, my sister asked me to make her a quilt.  I was very happy to do so, but warned her that with school and work, it might be a long-term project.  It wasn’t until Mid-July that we were able to visit a fabric store together and start talking about what she wanted.  She has a fun and funky style, so I knew she would pick out a great pattern and awesome fabric, too. 

I brought some of my pattern books, and right away, the quilt on the cover of this book caught her eye. 

Then, we started looking at different fabrics, and she fell in love with the “Good Folks” line from Anna Marie Horner.  So I ordered a bundle of fat quarters from the set below, threw in some other fabrics for contrast and picked out a modern polka dot for the flower centers and background. 

It wasn’t until August that I was able to start working on the quilt.  I was a little nervous about trying this dresden plate pattern, so I decided to practice once first. This was my first time doing applique, or any type of pattern like this.  I am glad that I did practice, because when I sewed the wedges together, I discovered that I had cut them a little different than the pattern.  It was just 1/8 of an inch at the bottom of each, but it threw off the whole thing.  I ended up having to do some re-sewing and also remove one of the pieces to make it lay flat.  Then it was time to applique.  Again, I am glad I had this chance to practice making the tiny stitches just on the edge.  Here is how the pillowcase turned out.  I am loving how it is coming together and confident that I can tackle the real project now.  Unfortunately, I already cut about 2/3 of the slices that make up all those dresden plates.  So, the first step is to trim that 1/8 excess off each piece before I start putting them together.  I’m off to spend some time with my cutting mat.  Hopefully, I can make some progress since it is already September!