Dresden/Selvage Finish

This little project needs a name. Any suggestions?

I started playing with the selvage string blocks a while ago. I sewed the blocks together and placed the large white square in the middle. I cut out a back and basted it and then it sat in the WIP pile for a while. I wanted to finish it but I couldn't figure out what to do with the big gaping white space in the center. At first I thought I would use my new-found free-motion quilting skills to do something. Flowers in different colors? Sort of like these? I liked the idea, but I wasn't sold on it, so I let the project drape over my ironing board for months.

Stephanie had been showing her neat work with dresden plates, but they intimidated me. Finally, Elizabeth wrote a tutorial for SMS' April quilting month and I decided to plunge in. I went to my scrap box and picked out a rainbow of fabric, trying to use ones whose selvages were already in the blocks. Deciding which fabrics to use was tough but I love the choices I made, as the dresden plate includes lots of fabrics I love. 

And it turns out dresden plates are pretty easy (at least once you read the directions carefully and sew the wide ends of the fabric together to create the point; it doesn't work so well with the narrow ends -- I know, because I tried). I need to work on my precision-circle cutting as well as my stitching down of the dresden plate, but I think it's a keeper.

The back was from my stash and I love the way it looks, with the circles popping out from afar. As you can see, I quilting in a spiral in the white dresden plate center and then did straight lines to make a grid on the selvage blocks. I even added tabs, based on this tutorial from Modify Tradition (a great newish blog, if you haven't seen it). For the binding, I opted for the solid dark aqua, which is very bright. I mostly love it, but occasionally I think, "wow, brightness." I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with this. I thought about giving it to my mom for mother's day, but I wasn't sure a) if she'd like it and b) if I wanted to let go of it yet since it marks the fabric I used in 2009. (And since I didn't, I'm very delinquent on a mother's day gift. Sorry, Mom. I owe you one, and if you want this, I will give it to you. Let me know...)

And coming soon....

SMS Giveaway Day: Monday May 17 

~ I'll be giving away something or maybe 2 somethings ~

Spring 2010 Blogger Quilt Festival