Dare to Dresden! {D2D}

I'm on the blog hop today, for the Dare to Dresden Challenge on Sew We Quilt hosted by Christine of Quilt Monster in my Closet.  I have not made a dresden plate before, so this was my first attempt at it.  After playing around a bit I printed out a template for a 9" block from EQ during my "cut week", and I pulled out some white/black, black, and orange from my stash.

I took the blade pattern and just cut them straight rather than pointed at the top.  Folded the blades in half and, using my 1/4" foot, stitched them straight across the tops.  After that I clipped the corners/points and turned right side out, making sure to get the blade points out, nice and neat.  Press!

When I'm sewing curves or angles I like to use starch  - any help I can get to keep things from slanting or getting wobbly :)

These go under the presser foot - two by two!  Pressing seams open as I go - than eventually all together.

As, I said earlier - haven't made any of these before so . . . I'm sure there's a better - proper way of doing this.  After I finished with the center, I did a tiny zigzag to stitch fan and back together.

I made 16 blocks,

placing them in four-by-four layout.  I wanted the Orange petal for a little punch on each block.  Almost makes me think of a caterpillar.

I did struggle a little, and I have to admit I did quite a bit of tugging and pulling to get things square.  Hopefully my next dresden won't be a struggle.  I still have to quilt this, and I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do . . . black thread? in the ditch? a design?  I have no idea!  But looking at it - I really do love the black/white and orange. :)

Here are the other participants for today's hop.  Stop by and check out their dresdens & show some love!

That Other Blog

Clothes and Crafts

It Seems to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road Ramblings

Living Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary

Kwilty Pleasures

Espritpatch

Nutz4Redwork

Brrrrr . . .

It's 17 degrees outside - windchill makes it feel like 4! Yikes!  I went out this morning with everything wrapped up but my eyeballs - and then I thought, dear Lord! My eyes are FREEZING! LOL!  What's a girl to do?  Start the laundry and sit down and sew!

My log cabin blocks are coming along nicely . . .

So now it's time to start my sashing, which will be white/white strips and red/red strips with blue points and blue intersection blocks that will look like this . . .

this will yield a star pattern making the layout look like this . . .

I hope to be done the sashing this week, so maybe actually start quilting this one by end of the month :)

I'm also playing with my dresden blocks that I'm doing for the Dare 2 Dresden Challenge over on Sew We Quilt.  I've never tried them before so this will be a first.  I've chosen a 9" block, and prepared my templates.

My blog will be on the hop on January 30th - so be sure to stop back and see what I've worked out ;)

It's definitely crock pot weather - so I've got to get my chili cooking.  Is it cold where you are?  How you keepin' warm?