Friday, December 16, 2016

Scrappy Dresden Baby Quilt


No Pressure Quilts

Can I tell you what I love most about making baby quilts?  I love that when someone looks at this quilt, it's only going to be for a moment before their eyes go back to the new baby. They aren't going to see the little imperfections you and I might pick apart with our eyes. This is about the baby--not the quilt! No pressure. But for the sake of letting you in on what I learned, I'll pick apart the process. 


I made this after watching Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Co. make a scrappy Dresden Plate.



I used my Creative Grids ruler set instead of Jenny's, but you can use any Dresden ruler to do this. The real trick is in the pressing and nesting seams so pay attention to press toward the dark strips.



I chose a low volume pale yellow print for a background. It popped those bright colors.  A simple button hole stitch on my Pfaff anchored it. The batting was prewashed flannel, and I used a sew and turn method for a no binding finish. The backing was Minkee. I hand quilted with Perle cotton No. 8.

NOTE: I will tell you it was not an ideal way to finish this quilt, and I won't be using it with Minkee again. There was too much stretch to the backing, and no amount of pinning, stretching, smoothing, and working the layers led to a happy ending. I had to finally 'make it work.'


The backing makes the quilting nearly invisible, but I believe I would have been much happier to have machine quilted this project. The flannel was well felted, and it was quite difficult to stitch through all the layers. As a result, the stitches had to be fairly large.


In some areas I matched the thread, and in others I added contrast.  I left the area between the stitching fairly large since I desired a soft feel to the quilt. It does feel lovely!


The afternoon sun did a good job of washing out the color, but you get a good idea of the overall effect. I was so anxious to get it in the mail this morning that I forgot the tag! Phooey.



The Mystery Quilt Continues


Last week called for 4 patches once again, but in purples. My color choices made this a coral-orange and pink-purple. I still have a few to do, and this week's installment is live for more triangle blocks. It's hard work to keep up, and I keep taking on more projects. I think I need to put on the brakes, and decorate the Christmas tree. We've been enjoying it without ornaments for nearly two weeks now.

Be well, be happy, and enjoy the holiday season!

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.





Linking up with~
Freemotion By the River
Val's Quilting Archives Crazy Mom Quilts

8 comments:

Angie in SoCal said...

Such a colorful baby quilt. Baby's going to love it. Don't forget to go and post it at Michele's Let's Make Baby quilts. Merry Christmas,

KaHolly said...

Very sweet baby quilt! Bet it was fun to make!

Ariane said...

Super cute baby quilt!!

Stitchin At Home said...

An adorable baby quilt Julie. Want to come decorate my tree?

Jayne said...

Thank you for sharing this! I have wanted to make one for so long! 2017 is the year for it! It's a gorgeous little quilt and I love the hand stitching!

Kate said...

A very sweet and colorful baby quilt. Congrats on the finish. Hopefully you've got the tree decorated now. I still have presents to wrap, that needs to get done today.

Karla Brown said...

Super cute baby quilt!

Leslie said...

I love Minkee backings--but you're right, they shift around and are nearly impossible to keep smooth. I find it easier if I use a basting spray and a traditional binding (rather than sewing around, wrong sides together and turning). It keeps the back from shifting around so much.