Dare to Dresden....

Welcome to the Dare to Dresden Blog Hop!  For a list of other sites head over to the other bloggers showcasing today:

A Peach in Stitches

Nancy W @ “that Other Blog”

L3 Designs

Bungalow Bay Quilts

Quilted Delights

Quilt Crossing

Lixie Makes it

A Quilting Sheep

Charlotte's Creations

Quilt-n-Queen
Domesticity and Other Ponderous Things

Sew Much 2 Luv

A Quilt and a Prayer

Amanda Murphy Design

Little Mushroom Cap
Kathy's Quilts

Sandra Kaye Design

For my dresden I was inspired by Paul's Gear Block Cushion.  I loved this, and thought it would work great with the fabric I used for my husband's Christmas Present.  My plan is to make a pillow about 18" square...

I sketched a pattern out and then decided I would paper piece it... A little crazy as it has 18 sections with two pieces per section in a half of the Dresden   I had my husband (using his graphic skills) draft up the papers I would use for the Paper Piecing...  It was lots of paper.... but I have learned a few things I like when paper piecing... I much prefer the 1/4" lines to be printed on the paper, and I like to pre-cut the sections out... I found it made it faster for sewing.

I didn't get a chance to finish my Dresden into a pillow because I have been busy with Dance Costumes and Robbie Burns activities.... and busy with building my new sewing studio.

Although there is currently poor lighting, this room
will have lots of lighting once finished!

Progress on the new studio - mudding in progress

New Ceiling!

This isn't my first time making Dresdens.  One is currently on the back of the quilt on the longarm, and the others are waiting to be quilted...

My Dresden's waiting for quilting
From Lily's Quilts QAL

And the one on the back of my Quilt from
 last year's Sew Happy Geek QAL

FNSI - Around in circles!

Wow!  Don't get out your ruler... don't look at the back... but the quilting has started.  Round and round in circles...

I ended up re-pin basting them... I really wish for these that they were spray basted.  By sewing around and around, the fabric did move some and I wonder if glue might have been a better solution than pins! There are a few puckers on the back... but I'm not taking them out!  This quilt is about learning new techniques - so now I know what doesn't work!

If you are interested in scrapbooking software, check out my giveaway here!

Friday night sewing at the beach....

During the day instead of having prep time, I was making blackberry jam for my Gram.  She is very spoiled - my mom went home with fresh blackberry pie and blackberry jam for her.  She is 95!

After dinner I started sewing while the kids went down to the beach with my mom and her husband... Looking out at the calm waters I couldn't resist the call of the ocean.  So I went out for a kayak!  Then I picked up my husband from the ferry.

Finally at 9pm I sat down to sew...

Winter Quilt
First I worked on my winter whirly gig quilt.  I had laid out the blocks previously and then stitched together to quilt top.  I can't proceed any further on this until I get more unwashed white cotton.

Sewn Together

Dresden Quilts 

Last night I set 4 of the circles into the outer border, squared up the blocks, then added the two borders.


This project was started as part of Lily's Quilts QAL in the spring... but life got in the way and I never finished them. Now I have the blocks ready to add the batting and backing. I will start assembling these blocks, but the quilting thread for these is at home in my sewing room. Because I'm not positive where the thread is, I'll need to wait until I get home to find it.

I need to head back to Lily's Quilts Blog and read the instructions!

Each of these blocks is about 31" square.

The 4 Blocks Ready for the Quilt.  This is a quilt as you go project, so I didn't piece them together

When I was making up the blocks, I forgot one at the cabin... but now all blocks are united and now I have an extra one.

I don't have enough of the background fabric to border it.  I will do a wider light border - probably the ligth blue, and then maybe a pieced border... I haven't decided....

Dresden - this one will be made into a separate quilt.

Grace's Quilt


Grace is still in the hospital and is gaining weight but has some struggles. She is in our continual prayers... The kids are continuing to work on their gift for her. They decided they would do the quilting too! So the progress is slow as Gramma (my mom) came for a 3 day visit. They didn't work on this last night, but are starting to work on it again today now that Gramma has left!

Design Wall Monday

Quilting
Today we got Grace's Quilt top pinned together...  Not much else done...  

And my dresdens are waiting to be sewn into the backgrounds, which are ready sitting on my sewing table.  Time to get busy....

Back to school sewing
The pants for my son need the fly sewn...

Seen around town

This is the quilt in my massage therapists office.  I thought it was quite pretty... The statement on it reads "What is your greatest desire?  Follow it and find peace". 

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were all taken on my Blackberry...