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Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way
- Thread starter freedombecki
- Start date
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
Quilting Dresden plate is like going around in circles, counting steps. I will try to elaborate for those who love Dresden quilts. First, I will show you a traditional Dresden, then others using the same three-hundred sixty degrees in a circle, divided down to know what template is best for purchase. I may have shown some of these earlier, but will try and show a template that will get you there to doing these things some of you luckier may have seen a quilter in the family do. Not everyone loves circles. When a person can't master her 1/4 inch seam allowance, and in some cases on the diagonal, 3/8 of an inch (no, I am not Pathagoreas nor know why the diagonal takes up 3/8", but a person who has used a slide rule might know. Unfortunately only people who loved math with all their heart, soul and mind, who are probably in the engineering or math teacher professions and some architects, could tell you without looking it up in old, dusty texts. And someone responsible for building a round-topped building might know. That's just my opinion. But a master quilter who has made ten or more Mariner's compass quilts has an inkling. Often this appeals to a woman engineer who grew fascinated with the design and construction of quilts and loved circles and its multitudinous dimensions might get it better than anyone. They need to be leary of quilting. It's a positive disease, but disease is what it is, and a quilt can make one focus on the oddest parts of mathematics you ever heard of. Plane geometry, trigonometry, and even calculus might provide inspiration for a quilt. Don't ask me why, but I recalled the Pythagorean theorem 20 years after I learned it from a patient schoolteacher named Mrs. Jones from Aldine High School before 1964. Going into her classroom was a delightful trip into the reality of mathematics and its applications to science. There I go again, on a trip down memory lane. 
This quilt is based on the quilter's old favorite, Dresden Quilt. It doesn't look like a Dresden, not exactly, but the circular measurements, the strips, etc., land it into what the quilter knows is a Dresden Plate style quilt. I love the modern feel, the rule-breaking, and the sheer fun of this new way of stitching an old favorite:
The quilter fashioned these circles into octagonal shapes, using 12 colored strips with black at either edge
and 12 white (background strips placed between them. Mrs. Jones said good mathematicians were generally
considered "lazy" persons figuring the easiest method possible, and this clever designer found that it's easier
to sew a single layer underneath an open (or pressed one way) seam allowance, with the seam allowance showing
underneath the carefully guided open seam on top where you could see it being stitched open or pressed to a "correct" side.
When one divides the 360 degrees of a circle by 12 + 12 = 24 or 360/24 = 15 degrees, you need to purchase a 15-degree
wedge ruler to accommodate where to cut the white wedges as well as the colored + black inner or outer match heads,
you need to alternate the matchheads, large and small by rotating your wedge acrylic ruler up and down to get oh, say the
aqua-turquoise wheels of matchsticks with heads to the center and heads to the outer rings on the two types of
circles the above show. You could also cut the same number of spokes of each type and make 2 different quilts,
one with matchneads on the outside which emphasizes the wheel appearance, or a quilt with the
matchneads on the inside with the appearance on its outer edge as an octagon with 8 sides and 4 corner wedges we
quilters call half-square triangles. With no knowledge of this quilt's size, I would have to sit myself down, get a protractor and a
circle calibrated with 360 degrees, decide what size of a bed this quilt would fit, how much lap I would want at the top, bottom,
and sides to tuck under or not to tuck under, to figure the amount of fabric that would be needed to make the above quilt.
/end lecture about not much of anything.
This quilt is based on the quilter's old favorite, Dresden Quilt. It doesn't look like a Dresden, not exactly, but the circular measurements, the strips, etc., land it into what the quilter knows is a Dresden Plate style quilt. I love the modern feel, the rule-breaking, and the sheer fun of this new way of stitching an old favorite:
The quilter fashioned these circles into octagonal shapes, using 12 colored strips with black at either edge
and 12 white (background strips placed between them. Mrs. Jones said good mathematicians were generally
considered "lazy" persons figuring the easiest method possible, and this clever designer found that it's easier
to sew a single layer underneath an open (or pressed one way) seam allowance, with the seam allowance showing
underneath the carefully guided open seam on top where you could see it being stitched open or pressed to a "correct" side.
When one divides the 360 degrees of a circle by 12 + 12 = 24 or 360/24 = 15 degrees, you need to purchase a 15-degree
wedge ruler to accommodate where to cut the white wedges as well as the colored + black inner or outer match heads,
you need to alternate the matchheads, large and small by rotating your wedge acrylic ruler up and down to get oh, say the
aqua-turquoise wheels of matchsticks with heads to the center and heads to the outer rings on the two types of
circles the above show. You could also cut the same number of spokes of each type and make 2 different quilts,
one with matchneads on the outside which emphasizes the wheel appearance, or a quilt with the
matchneads on the inside with the appearance on its outer edge as an octagon with 8 sides and 4 corner wedges we
quilters call half-square triangles. With no knowledge of this quilt's size, I would have to sit myself down, get a protractor and a
circle calibrated with 360 degrees, decide what size of a bed this quilt would fit, how much lap I would want at the top, bottom,
and sides to tuck under or not to tuck under, to figure the amount of fabric that would be needed to make the above quilt.
/end lecture about not much of anything.
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
Who'd a thunk that a quilt could be a delightful, modern work of art? The quilting through layers is a joyful sunburst, as are the modern debonaire look of playing with positive and negative spaces that are both straight and cylindrical at the same time. Go, Dresden Plate!
Image credit thanks to The Girl Who Quilts
Modern Dresden Plate Mini Quilt Challenge – Perth Modern Quilt Guild
Color wheel great page from Perth Modern Quilt Guild: Education challenge: Colour schemes – Perth Modern Quilt Guild
Image credit thanks to The Girl Who Quilts
Modern Dresden Plate Mini Quilt Challenge – Perth Modern Quilt Guild
Color wheel great page from Perth Modern Quilt Guild: Education challenge: Colour schemes – Perth Modern Quilt Guild
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beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
This morning, I found some courthouse steps blocks and finished a 12-block (3x4) crib sized quilt that measures approximately 41x 52" It also has a 1-inch inner border in a 30s sailor print and a 3" outer border that is waves of black and colorful dots. It came out to my great liking, considering I wasn't sure where that quilt was going, because there are 8 more quilt blocks left. I just didn't want to make it too big, and 41x52" is workable for anyone who steps forward to quilt it. It alternates black and color squares with brilliant colors and lights around the center square. the squares measure eleven inches. I looked, and there isn't anything even closely resembling my simple, bright little work. I did, however find out there are some totally awesome quilts out there in the courthouse steps pattern, so I will first show blocks, then a few quilts I admire. I know how much work they are, it just seemed a good way to get a quilt top in a day, and it worked!
Some blocks
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
This small quilt is strips arranged around an enlongated rectangle,
but is true to the Courthouse Steps construction method, though
the adjacent sides, tops and bottoms are not effectively ringed. My squares
first are square, not rectangles per se, and 4 white strips make one ring
and the next 4 dark strips make a second "ring" square as it might be.
This one's willy-nilly and very fun.
but is true to the Courthouse Steps construction method, though
the adjacent sides, tops and bottoms are not effectively ringed. My squares
first are square, not rectangles per se, and 4 white strips make one ring
and the next 4 dark strips make a second "ring" square as it might be.
This one's willy-nilly and very fun.
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
I've been thinking about jelly roll quilts lately. Jelly rolls for quilts are available at many quilt stores, and the other day I ran across this amazing quilt in a video taken by someone who went on a shop hop and took a picture of one near the front of a video at youtube on just "shop hops" in general. It's the strip one punctuated by a grouping of 5 colors on each horizontal strips, and it would take less time, of course than a log cabin quilt that finishes logs at one inch wide. Jelly Roll strips are cut two-and-one-half inches and leave a 2-inch finished strip, log, or cross-cut squares. For people into looking at quilts and have never seen the interior of a good classes-and-gallery store, this is a prime example of a walk-through.
This shop, "Oh, Susannah," was in Watkins Glen NY, but apparently the owner retired in 2016.
What an amazing place it must have been, so rich in handwork and a cornerstone of the quilters from many miles around. Hopefully, someone will take up the slack and establish another store in the vicinity. I can't get over how beautiful the jellyroll quilt is at 2:12 on the video timer. It is only there for a few seconds, so I just used the stop feature listed at the lower left hand side of the youtube frame. I bought a dozen pieces of cloth at my local store, but this particular earthy-colored quilt used batik fabrics which have a soft loveliness of atmospheric teals, glacier, cool grey beige, warm rusts, and rusty reds, not to mention several blender colors. Oh, heck, I was gonna do housework today. I'm going to Bryan where they've got the best collection anywhere of quilt fabrics.
The quilt I love is at 2:12 (time) on this video.
This shop, "Oh, Susannah," was in Watkins Glen NY, but apparently the owner retired in 2016.
What an amazing place it must have been, so rich in handwork and a cornerstone of the quilters from many miles around. Hopefully, someone will take up the slack and establish another store in the vicinity. I can't get over how beautiful the jellyroll quilt is at 2:12 on the video timer. It is only there for a few seconds, so I just used the stop feature listed at the lower left hand side of the youtube frame. I bought a dozen pieces of cloth at my local store, but this particular earthy-colored quilt used batik fabrics which have a soft loveliness of atmospheric teals, glacier, cool grey beige, warm rusts, and rusty reds, not to mention several blender colors. Oh, heck, I was gonna do housework today. I'm going to Bryan where they've got the best collection anywhere of quilt fabrics.
Last edited:
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
If the double price annoys you, you can buy quarter yards of fabrics at today's going price of around $12.99 per yard (4 quarter yard pieces) to get 45" strips (3 per 9" with 1.5" strip left over, 9 inches being 1/4 of a yard which equals 36 inches; 36"/4=9") 2.5"x3=7.5"+1.5"=9". We quilters do math all the day long some days...which is serious after planning a trip to the quilt store. with needing 20 different 2.5" strips to make a jelly roll that sells for $62.00, you will have to spend 20x12.99 = $259.80 for 3 sets plus 20 1.5" strips to make part of one log cabin quilt or a small strip quilt. I'm here to tell you, it's fun having leftovers, but having a house full of strip boxes is not fun to upkeep until you get inspired to use those same colors once more. And once you start "borrowing" this color and that color, you are left with what amounts to making the "ugliest quilt in the world," which somehow never gets done.
After you pay for gas to a quilt store that's a 100 mile round trip for the perfect selection, state tax, and expended time, you just spent $300 for two potential quilt and boucoup leftovers.
But oh, sometimes it's fun to go to a jelly roll swap if you belong to a guild. And whoever gets your homemade quilt strips is likely to be unhappy when you forgot to remove the strip you cut 2.5" on one end and 2.25" on the other end because you kept using the same mat year after year, and the lines became fuzzy, which produces gross errors in cutting from time to time. A mat in my home gets moved around, but fortunately, I seem to be able to gauge differences as small as 1/8" on a good day, but unless concentration is 100%, even my 50 years of quilting experience go out the door, same as a first-timer quilter who doesn't have any idea except for what's on the mat paired with what's on the cutting ruler, much less how to hold a rotary cutter. Of course, she can spend a couple of days cutting with scissors on a pencilled-in line, which teaches one very little about what 1/8" errors look like using the eyeballing checkpoint some of us truly right-brainer quilters depend on for accuracy.
The left-brain quilters (very rare women) happen to be very pragmatic and error-free due to their super-objective methods that go along with a mathematical mind. I met all kinds of quilters in the 23 years I ran my own shop plus years before just having fun quilting and the years after challenging myself to make 100 quilts a year like I did in 2013. Fortunately, my husband was still alive and supportive that last year of his good health. After that, he was overcome with worsening dementia which took him away 3 short years later of all kinds of problems that his type of dementia was (childhood brain injury due to 2 automobile accidents and later, high school bullies beating him up, taking advantage of his childhood polio disability). Never met a man as good-hearted and caring as him in the majority of his adult life. I never ever viewed him as disabled, because his strong left hand was as capable as 3 hands. There was very little the man could not do with 1 withered hand with only a pincher grip. All I saw in him were his beautiful caring eyes and his heartful of love and good humor towards everybody. I had 44 totally wonderful years with his good-spiritedness and totally kind consideration and thoughtfulness of his family.
After you pay for gas to a quilt store that's a 100 mile round trip for the perfect selection, state tax, and expended time, you just spent $300 for two potential quilt and boucoup leftovers.
But oh, sometimes it's fun to go to a jelly roll swap if you belong to a guild. And whoever gets your homemade quilt strips is likely to be unhappy when you forgot to remove the strip you cut 2.5" on one end and 2.25" on the other end because you kept using the same mat year after year, and the lines became fuzzy, which produces gross errors in cutting from time to time. A mat in my home gets moved around, but fortunately, I seem to be able to gauge differences as small as 1/8" on a good day, but unless concentration is 100%, even my 50 years of quilting experience go out the door, same as a first-timer quilter who doesn't have any idea except for what's on the mat paired with what's on the cutting ruler, much less how to hold a rotary cutter. Of course, she can spend a couple of days cutting with scissors on a pencilled-in line, which teaches one very little about what 1/8" errors look like using the eyeballing checkpoint some of us truly right-brainer quilters depend on for accuracy.
The left-brain quilters (very rare women) happen to be very pragmatic and error-free due to their super-objective methods that go along with a mathematical mind. I met all kinds of quilters in the 23 years I ran my own shop plus years before just having fun quilting and the years after challenging myself to make 100 quilts a year like I did in 2013. Fortunately, my husband was still alive and supportive that last year of his good health. After that, he was overcome with worsening dementia which took him away 3 short years later of all kinds of problems that his type of dementia was (childhood brain injury due to 2 automobile accidents and later, high school bullies beating him up, taking advantage of his childhood polio disability). Never met a man as good-hearted and caring as him in the majority of his adult life. I never ever viewed him as disabled, because his strong left hand was as capable as 3 hands. There was very little the man could not do with 1 withered hand with only a pincher grip. All I saw in him were his beautiful caring eyes and his heartful of love and good humor towards everybody. I had 44 totally wonderful years with his good-spiritedness and totally kind consideration and thoughtfulness of his family.
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
Well I was going to show some of the glorious jelly roll quilts I found online, but that will have to be another day. I frittered the better part of this morning oogling quilts. Oh, I'll pick a few but just show the small versions from Bing.
beautress
Always Faithful
- Sep 28, 2018
- 30,209
- 21,855
Quilts with black backgrounds
Sometimes it's good to look at colors, and quilts that are colorful with colors separated by neutral black can give them an extraordinary punch that no other background cover delivers. I thought it'd be nice to show some of the lovliness of inspiration that the color black brings about as colors complement and contrast against the black ground. Often, if it is narrowly separated by black, a stained glass effect is achieved. So here goes:
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