Wednesday 4 May 2011

It's been so hot lately you may need a fan

This Saturday was meant to be my next visit to my quilting group, but since we had an extended bank holiday weekend (due to the royal wedding - thanks Will and Kate!), we disappeared off for a long weekend in the country with friends. But then I realised that I hadn't even posted what I made last month when I went. So here it is, first we made a block called grandmother's fan:


When I was stitching this together, I didn't have very high hopes for it as I'm not a fan of the block, but then the fabrics I chose seemed to suit it really well, and I found myself wishing I could make this into something to keep, a bag perhaps?

The white area looks a little plain now, but to me it's just crying out for some hand quilted strips in a radial pattern from the centre of the design. I know it looks nothing like a bird but in my head the word peacock keeps cropping up. I've obviously been working in kids books too long.


Then after we finished the Grandmother's fan, we started to make a Dresden plate block. Once again, this is another one that hasn't exactly tickled my fancy when I've previously seen it on quilts so I went about it half heartedly.

It's made up of 12 pieces sewn together to form a circular pattern. These can have either a rounded edge or a pointed edge, I couldn't decide so I went for a mixture of the two. You then sew a circular piece in the middle and then applique it all onto a background piece of fabric. 


As you can see, I didn't manage to finish it in time, folded it up, popped it into my folder and nicely forgot all about it until today. 


I can see this pattern looking really good on a cushion. Actually it reminded me of a quilt pattern that I'd seen before and loved, that's out of one of my absolute fave quilting books

It's called Dotty for Dresden and now I know how to go about making it yippee! Maybe I will become a dresden fan before long, watch this space…

1 comment:

  1. That really is gorgeous! I love the way it is so perfectly proportioned - it must have taken a lot of work! Beautiful! x

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