Today is the final day of the show and tell from the Ultimate Quilt Block collection book. Well - let's just say that I'll be up to date with the show and tell after this post. Wait - there's going to be one more about the Dresden Plate block. This is one of my ongoing classes at The Hobby Horse.
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| Ultimate Quilt Block by Lynne Goldsworthy |
I want to reiterate that there's NO required homework in this class. If the students do not want to make a particular block, they are not obliged. Many people want to piece quilts, with a lesser interest in applique.
I choose the Dresden Plate block for last month's assignment. I expected to get a couple of blocks back for show and tell. What actually came in for show and tell totally blew me away. These quilters are super creative and the variety of what they did - well, there was loads to learn from. I'm so impressed.
Let's have a look. There are a LOT of pictures.
This first one was a wild way to start. Sandra did not want to make the traditional Dresden plate block, so she found a very different style of the block that blew us all away. It's called Dresden Neighbourhood. You can purchase and download your own copy of the pattern at that link. Sandra took her block even more over the top with beading. It was truly impressive and a lot of fun if you want to update the Dresden block. Anyway - if you search the internet for Dresden Neighbourhood, tons of stuff comes up including tutorials and a whole lot of other ideas.
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| Dresden Neighbourhood |
Donna changed up her Dresden block by putting two quarter Dresden fans on one block. That's very cool and imagine an entire quilt made with these blocks. I like that every second blade changes value. That adds a lot of movement to the block instead of having just the dark or just the light.
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| Two quarter Dresden fans |
Susan is making a full-size quilt with her Dresden blocks. The fabric in these blocks is so fresh and cheery. You can't help but smile looking at it. She's in the process of creating the applique and will be stitching them to the background at some point. The center will be attached once the block is appliqued to the background.
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| A single block in a fresh palette |
Here are more of Susan's blocks. I don't remember how many she had made but she's been busy.
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| More of Susan's blocks |
I want to say that this belongs to Sheila. It's about 6 inches in diameter and so super cute. I love the small size. She also had several circles in different colors. Amazing how the color of the center circle will pull out a particular color from the block. A great way to understand color by playing with that center fabric circle.
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| A mini block |
This is Sara's. She did two different versions. The first one is very scrappy and very soft. It has a very modern vibe.
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| A modern version of the Dresden Plate |
Her second block is totally different. Notice the pieced background. That's very cool, but I LOVE the white Dresden plate. I've never seen one where the Dresden Plate is the light and the background is the dark. An awesome concept. Notice the center of the Dresden is the background fabric, but it's been rotated!!
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| The values have been reversed from a traditional Dresden plate |
This next one is quite interesting, especially when you look at the mini block above. In that case, the center circle of the fabric appears to pull the yellow from the block. In this case, even though the center pulls the Asian fabric, it's the hot pink that catches my eye when I look at this block.
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| Notice how the WARM color is dominant in this version |
I believe this was Willa's. She's making a small wall hanging by incorporate the block from last month with the block from this month. She designed her wall hanging in EQ8. AWESOME!!! The flower pot is a modified version of our previous month's block and you can see the templates (created by EQ8) for the Dresden flower. Even doing this exercise alone is huge. There are many quilters who will spend all their time designing in EQ8 and never make any of the quilts!
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| A design concept for a wall hanging made with EQ8 |
Barb is making a block for each month using the same fabric. There's that great color combination again. The orange, the blue with white and orange, and the dark blue. This is the block that was in the book. Just so you know how much everyone changed it up. I think Sara's first block was also following the pattern in the book.
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| Notice the center is the same color as the background! |
This is also Barb's block. Yes - many people made more than one block. I tell you, this class is so motivated and wanting to learn. They are truly making this class one of the best classes I've ever taught. I'm learning so much from them.
Do you see anything wrong with the block? Well, if you look close, you'll see along the left side that there are three of the light blades, while all of the other light sections have only two blades. When you're working with a pattern, you have to take into account how many blades you'll be using in your total block and what your repeat is. In this case, there are 22 blades in the block. The pattern repeat is three (one dark and two light). 22 is not divisible by 3 so this is what happens. Most of us didn't notice it until she brought it up. Another great lesson. Thanks, Barb!!!
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| Barb's second block |
That pattern is from my Dresden block and it's quite large. I'll be sharing more stuff about Dresden blocks tomorrow. I don't have time or proper lighting to take pictures this morning.
Oh, shoot - I know who made this bag, but do you think I can remember her name? I think it's Mary. I must find my book to help me remember. I have a list of names in there.
Anyway. look at her interesting take on the Dresden block. She used fan blades but didn't make them follow the 90, 180, 270, 360-degree rules. What a super interesting concept. And then she put a bottom on the blade groupings to make it look like a flower. Then she took the three flowers and appliqued them to a bag. Awesome job!!!! Just goes to show that you can break all the rules and who cares? No one!!!
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| Dresden flowers on a bag |
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| Bonnie's Dresden block from years ago |
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| Bonnie's hand quilting Dresden block |
This is what Bonnie is doing this go around. She's using some Christmas fabric that's been sitting around. The fabrics are so fun with the strips (notice that she made the stripes go one way on the green blades and they go in the opposite direction on the other. The dots are super fun!!!!
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| Bonnie's "new" version of the Dresden block |
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| Light and dark are alternated on this block |
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| Should the blue border go on??? |
Here's an interesting block. Notice that all the blades come into a definite point at the corner. Technically there's no need to have that center circle applique on. Notice though that the point on the bottom of the block will be cut off when the block is sewn into a quilt. How to fix? (And the fan blades were not appliqued in place). Move the Dresden fans up so that bottom point clears the seam allowance. Yes - you'll have to shave part of that long edge of the top blade off, but no one will notice. At least not as much as they'll notice if the point of that bottom blade gets cut off. It's all about deceiving the eye!!
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| Move the fan blades up to avoid losing the point on the bottom right |
Here's another version from the book. And something that I love. Each and every block that showed up had a story or something different from what the others did! That is how we learn!!! I don't remember whose block this was, but notice that they did NOT put a center on the blades. The center is the background. That means they turned the bottom edge under. Why not? I love it!! It's hard to see, but they may also have cut away the background and then applique the center on top of the blades. I think that is what they did.
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| The center circle is the background |
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| Kathi's block |
At this point, my mind was already into overload and then Nancy got up. She had several quilts with her. My initial thought was - we haven't started the non-homework show and tell. Then she opened up the quilts and we all understood what was going on.
Nancy made this compass quilt several years ago. It's HUGE and it's gorgeous. However, the pattern had left THREE large empty circles and Nancy wasn't happy with the quilt. After the Dresden plate discussion in class, Nancy rushed home and dug out this quilt. She added THREE Dresden plates to the center of those three empty circles and they look like they were part of the design. I was totally blown away!!!
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| Nancy's compass quilt with Dresden block centers |
Here's a closeup of one of the blocks. See how she scaled the Dresden block so it looked appropriate in the center. It looks like she had fabric leftover and used that to make the Dresden blocks.
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| The center of one of the compass circles |
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| The second center |
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| The third center |
That was mind-blowing and just goes to show that if you don't like a quilt, there's usually something that you can add to make it nice. I LOVE that compass quilt. Nancy, you are so WELCOME for the inspiration. You totally blew me away.
OK - then she digs out another quilt top that she brought to the front. This was a mystery quilt from several years ago. There were HUGE blank squares in the quilt and again, it didn't look right to Nancy. So she got out her Dresden plate block and added EIGHT Dresden plates to this quilt. Seriously???
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| Nancy's reworked mystery quilt |
Here's a close up of the block. Seriously? She did both of those quilts in the past month? Yep - I was speechless. She also added some machine embroidery detail in the center of each block. The quilt was very ho-hum until she added those Dresden plates.
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| Detail of the added Dresden block |
Not only did she add the Dresden blocks to the main part of the quilt, but she put quarter Dresden blocks in each corner of the quilt. Now - let that be a lesson to all of us. If you don't like something about a quilt, figure out why and then find a way to fix it. Sometimes, it may take several years as in this case, but now she has two GORGEOUS quilts with an amazing story for each.
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| Quarter fans in the corners |
This fabric combination is HAPPY. And not because of the orange center. I'm not that shallow - OK - maybe I am. But what's interesting about this block is the background. It's a very busy print - something that I don't use a lot of. The dark fabric choice helps to define the Dresden block. While there is a contrast between the busy print in the blades and the background, it's not huge. In this case, the dark forms the Dresden and your eye helps to define the other bits.
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| The dark blades define the Dresden plate |
This is Diane's block made with the Northcott Celtic Solstice fabric that she's been madly collecting over the past couple of months. This is very dramatic and look at the difference in the block above and this one. Very high contrast versus lower contrast. It's all about what final look you want.
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| Diane's high contrast Dresden block |
Oh, shoot - I think this was Lynne's block. She didn't want to make a Dresden block but she had this table topper that she had made in the embroidery hoop. Yep - it's a form of the Dresden block!!!
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| Dresden plate table topper |
And it's reversible!!!!
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| The other side of the table topper |
Judi didn't make a block, but she brought in this Dresden Plate quilt. As you can see, it's badly damaged and totally beyond repair. It would make a good cutter quilt and even then, I don't think that any of the blocks are without damage. Notice the two blocks on the corners on the right. It's possible that those blocks were tucked under the mattress and didn't get as much wear and tear and exposure to sunlight! I'm going to talk about this quilt a bit more tomorrow. I've just run out of time this morning.
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| A well loved Dresden plate quilt |
What do you think??? I'm totally blown away by the creativity that we saw this month. I love looking at old quilts and blocks. It's very important to note that there are NO new quilt patterns around these days. Most things have already been done before - we just may not know about it!
The group did a fabulous job and I'm impressed beyond words. All this came from a block that at first, I was very hesitant to present to the group because I thought no one would like it. Holy - they took me by surprise!!! I can't wait to see what happens next month at the show and tell.
In case you missed the previous two days of homework from this class, you can check them out here.
Day One
Day Two
Have a super day!!!!
Ciao!!!
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