Radiant Dresden (a finish!!)

Along, long time ago, I can still remember when... (hopefully you've now got American Pie stuck in your head, but I was actually telling you a real thing).

So anyway, a long, long time ago, a challenge was issued by the fantabulous Anne at Play Crafts to use the Pantone Colour of the year and make a quilt.  The year: 2014. The colour: radiant orchid (or as known to us lesser mortals: purple).

I grabbed a handful of purple from my stash and my Dresden wedge ruler, and happily sliced away.

Now this was the first time I've ever attempted a Dresden, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but figured it couldn't be too hard. I didn't think to google it until after I was already well along and trying to work out why my points weren't super pointy... turns there is a proper system to it (easy, but trust me, worth the quick google).

I used a simply Spotlight homespun grey for background and put my Dresden in the corner and then started quilting.

Because I was trying to use all the purple, I actually used 3 shades of purple thread, and used all three for each round of quilting. I feel like it gives a nice sketchy effect.

I did a simple expanding echo, and used some tailor chalk to try to get my lines the right distance apart.

I'm going to be fully honest here, and say that I got bored part way through quilting and decided that it was enough (because finished is better than perfect, am I right!) and called it done.

I, again having never done a Dresden, wasn't really sure how to cover the centre, I went with a pseudo trapunto and took a piece of batting and 2 pieces of fabric and sewed a circle, then split the bottom fabric, turned inside out and viola! A stuffed circle.  I then attached it with a couple of rounds of straight line stitching.

 Yeah,  This is not a fancy quilt.  This is a serious bodge job.  I have pulled an incredibly lack luster performance on this.  You'll notice there are no photos of the back, because it is *ugly*. Plain white flannel.  In theory, that meant it would show all the pretty colour of the threads. In practice it shows a lot of random thread and it looks like a weird target for something.  I

But in saying all that, I do still actually like this.  It is soft and snuggly. It taught me a whole bunch of things.  It might end up being a new quilt for the dog, but he'll be a very stylish puppy ;-)

Thanks for following the progress, and sorry it's taken so long to tell you whatever happened to this guy.  I did only actually finish it 2 or 3 weeks ago, so this is truly a 2 1/2 year project.

E xx