Thursday, November 7, 2013

Sometimes a sale inspires

My design wall is not a cohesive space.  My Max and Whiskers jelly roll quilt is up there this week, as are these Dresden plate blocks, made with a very different pallete.
I had 2 charm packs* of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille somewhere deep in my stash, and I always thought they would make a nice quick baby quilt with just basic squares.  But then two sales happened.

JoAnn had a 50% off quilting tool sale, and for some reason I felt compelled to buy an EZ Quilter Dresden plate ruler/template because a) I don't have one and b) it was only $5 and c)I've never even liked Dresden plate blocks, so it makes total sense that I would get one, right?


The other sale-based inspiration came from scrolling through the 50% off fabrics online and seeing some yardage that I instantly recognized as Vintage Modern.  This pattern-recognition super power of mine is both an asset and a curse. But once again -- 50% off?  Obviously I need to buy some to make a completely awesome matchy matchy all one fabric line quilt. And what better pattern to use than the Dresden Plate, since I've got that new ruler thing.


Problem is, I don't like matchy matchy, and while this fabric line does have some really fun color pairings, it looked almost "canned" and mass-merchandise to me until I pulled in assorted fabrics from my scrap pile. So about 30 % of the spokes are miscellaneous fabrics.  Even when the color is slightly off, I feel they blend ok, since each individual piece is quite small.

I've got spokes enough for 12 plates, which, when assembled with sashing and borders, makes a good sized twin quilt.  I reserve the right to do something entirely different once I get all the blocks assembled.

There's something about the traditional Dresden plate arrangement that just feels too predictable and prissy to me, so I may have to do something different-- stay tuned. This constitutes a cliffhanger in the world of quilting.

No comments:

Post a Comment