Dresden rings EtC.

I finished Dresden rings yesterday It measures 24 x 43, it is nice and straight, hangs, flat and it  ready to hang on the wall. I copied Melissa Cory's quilting although I thought about doing some free motion quilting. The truth is, I really hate marking the quilting lines but in the end I bit the bullet and did the marking with my pizza cutter and tiny dots using a Sewline marking pen. I am happy to say all of the marks a gone and did not reappear when I used a hot iron. I did not use the multi color binding I thought I would, the quilt told me to use the orange fabric that I had purchased on Friday for something else. Good thing I bought enough extra.

Here is a link to Melissa Cory's tutorial. She has many free tutorials and also patterns for sale and there is always something new and fun to see on her blog. It is worth a look around.








This is not one of the UFO's that I listed to finish but when I came across the rings by chance they said SPRING to me and I sure am ready for spring. When I pinned them on the background and showed it to Jack he told me to finish it and hang it by the front door where I had that black thing.


Here are three shots of the "black thing" (I guess Jack doesn't care for this a lot).  BTW it is navy blue, not black.

On the left is a shot showing all three sections. I had to stand outside my door to shoot this so this is the best I could do. The center shot shows a closeup of the Japanese Ikat. I quilted around the flowers and did some sashiko quilting and filled in the background with free motion echo quilting in navy thread.  The end panels are "made Fabric" made with woven strips of fabric, which I fused to a base fabric after I wove it. The narrow fuchsia and yellow strips are faux piping. The piece is 14 x 52. I made this a long time ago and it has resided in a cedar chest all those years. I like it but it never really fit in with anything else. I have a lot of things like that. I am inspired to try a technique or use a particular fabric or group of colors and it has no place to go when it is finished.  So.......every so often I give things to my family, other times I put quilts from the closet or cedar chest up on my design wall for a time.
It is probably time to give some things away again. My cedar chest is full, there are quilts on 2 shelves of a large cabinet and taking up space in two closets.

Design Wall and Dresden Progress

I have been lamenting the lack of access to my design wall. I was so pleased to get all the panels up   on the wall and to be able to put something up on them but it has not worked out well for a working wall. I have my sewing machine in front of it and a 4 foot Lifetime table beside my machine. I have been using large flannel covered foam core poster boards, which are not great except for a few blocks and small pieces. I just didn't see any good wall space because of furniture lining the perimeter of the room.  When I wanted  to take a photograph of my Dresden Rings I put a foam panel flat on top of my bookcase and pinned the quilt to the edge. I started thinking about how I might fashion a way to put my design boards up on the front of the bookcase (which would not have been any better than using them the way I have been).  Oh wait, what if I move the bookcase?  Yes! It fits! I moved it to the opposite wall next to my sewing machine and I used the flannel covered panels I already had taking up space in my closet. I now have a 7 ft. high by 4 ft. wide design wall and there is another 25 inches behind the door to put up more flannel covered panels.

Here is the new design wall. I put my Klimt panel and my "Happy Days" panel up for inspiration. If I am looking  at something often, it will tell me what to do. The other things are 2 blocks my great granddaughter in law  made for a Disappearing 9 Patch  quilt, one little seasonal March quilt and some fabric squares that make me happy when I look at them . In the lower right corner is the table that is about 3 feet away and next to my sewing machine.















Here is the bookcase around the corner from my not so usable for a working design wall.  I still have access to the two bottom shelves  which hold notebooks and magazine holders that I seldom use. My plastic drawers with my thread fit nicely there right next to my machine and move easily on wheels.









I am making progress quilting  the Dresden Rings. I have done echo quilting around the rings and partial rings and now I am working on the spaces where the echo quilting form one intersects with one or two other lines of echo quilting. I marked the points, where I change directions, with a "Sewline" marker. I just use a tiny faint dot and when I get one area finished I spray it with water and remove the marks. I use a bath towel to soak up some of the water and wait for it to dry before moving on. I was apprehensive about using the marker but it is working out OK. I did some testing before I used it on the quilt. I made sure my marks would not reappear if I pressed with a hot iron. Yes, I do block and steam press wallhangings after they are quilted.  I hope I can get this finished and hung this weekend, Spring will be here Tuesday and I want to be ready.

Dresden Rings

Dresden Rings is layered and pinned and ready to quilt. I wasn't sure how I wanted to attach the rings, hand applique was out and I thought of fusing but discarded that idea. Fusing isn't easily fixed if something goes wrong and fusing a round  ring seemed like the perfect opportunity to foul it up. So I smoothed and pinned the living daylights out of the rings and stitched them with bobbin thread right next to the edge and I am very happy with the results. I plan on quilting in the ditch between each blade so I am not concerned about the strength of the fine bobbin thread.

You can see I also pin basted the living daylights out of this layered piece. I should be able to remove some of the pins after I get the rings all quilted. I am prepared to deal with the hassle of working with the pins.

I will be trimming the edges after quilting to leave the half and quarter rings right up to the edge under the binding. I don't want a border but I plan on a bright multi color binding.

I put one extra blade in the lower "quarter" ring. I wanted it to be a little larger that the five blades When the edge is trimmed and bound it will be OK.  Who is going to check my plane geometry or my drafting?