The Dresden Wall-hanging - Need Suggestions.

In May of 2010, P. at The Way I Sew It, gave me the lovely Dresden center below.  She'd been on some kind of Dresden spree and had an extra.  Lucky me!  It took some time to figure out how to best showcase it, but I finally decided to mount it on the black fabric with the ribbon border.

Forgive Max.  He takes his QI duties very seriously.

Then life changed very drastically and I have only recently found a somewhat settled place.  (P. probably thought I'd forgotten about it or lost it since I've made so many moves.)  I began working on it again.  The center is quilted in a spiral and the plate itself is merely outlined so it will pop.  I began quilting the black fabric outside of the Dresden, and decided I didn't like it. No worries, I'd just rip out the quilting in that one corner (the one without pins) and start again.

Except....!  I put a hole in it with the seam ripper.  I am just so not happy about that.

Now, I am left with two choices:  take it apart and try to put it back together with an un-holed piece of black, or applique something on top of the hole.  I am loathe to do either.  I have discovered that dismantling and reassembling rarely results in a satisfactory outcome.  However, I am afraid any applique I could add would take away from the Dresden I was trying so hard to perfectly showcase.

Anyway, quilters, I am open to suggestions.

Spicy Spiral

A lot has happened since I last posted.

In 2013, I did my best to live up to the Jypsy Quilter name.  I have changed residences twice AND changed jobs twice - both times within the same week.  (Both times I doubted my sanity.)  However with this last move, I bought my new residence - a somewhat dated condo from the 70's with some quirky features that I love.  I won't be moving again any time soon.  And I really like my new job as a financial consultant with AXA Financial.  The work is both interesting and challenging.

Despite the Jypsy Quilter name, which I took on after leaving Nevada and becoming somewhat of a nomad, I find it very difficult to focus on quilting when I'm not feeling settled.  For the last three years, I have very little show to in the way of quilting - although my beloved tubs of fabric have moved with me each time.

Now, having been in my new place a little over three months, it is time to quilt!

My mom and I signed up for a class called Spicy Spiral Table Runner at one of our local quilt stores, The Picket Fence.  It was the first quilting class I have ever taken, and the first time I've used a wedge ruler.  On both counts, I'm hooked!  I had a blast!

After you pick 8 colors, your first step is to cut them into strips (the strips are different widths) and sew them together.  We did this part at home before the class.

Max helped

Next, cutting using the wedge ruler.  While not difficult once you get going, it was immensely helpful to have a quilt teacher at this juncture. The wedges get increasingly shorter.

Eventually, you end up with a pile of wedges like this:

Then we started sewing.  I'm guessing it took us about an hour and a half to sew this:

The points still need to be trimmed to make a smooth edge before adding the batting and backing.  The teacher recommended that instead of binding the edges, we treat it like a pillow and turn it.  As I am not eager to do a curved bias binding, I am going to try the teacher's suggestion.

Hoping to eke out some time soon to finish it.

Monday Miscellaneous

Christmas Gifts:

I was the ever so fortunate recipient of this lovely piece of quilt-work from P. at The Way I Sew It:


The colors, the funky designs in the fabric, coupled with the black border..., well, it just makes me happy.  Every time. 


I left it on the floor, where I could admire it no matter where I sat, until this fuzz butt quilt inspector decided she needed to test her claws on it.

To quickly remove this already cherished piece from danger, I grabbed it and put it on the back of the couch.

It looked so good, that there is remains.

I also received a lovely purse and tissue holder (although I keep my driver's license and credit cards in it) from my mom at Suzi's Stitchin'.  She is one talented lady. 

She used all my very most favorite colors in the creation  Talk about "custom made!"

A Tale of Two Table Toppers...er Wall-hangings:


For Christmas I got on a handmade kick.  I showed off some of my work here and here.  But there were two items I didn't show because the recipients read my blog.

The first was made for P. at The Way I Sew It:

The second was made for my cousin:

Same pattern ~ one I've decided I like a lot.  I enjoyed seeing it made up in two different fabric groupings.  While my cousin's uses the traditional Christmas colors, I used one of the later Christmas fabric collections for P.'s.  (Actually, I won that bunch of fabric in a giveaway a year and half ago, so it was nice to finally use it.)

I put the border around P.'s, but as I knew my cousin would likely use hers as a table-topper on a very specific table, I left the border off.  The border would have made it too large for the table. 

I am quite pleased with them both.

If you look carefully, you'll see that besides the color and the border the two are not exactly alike.  

When I was making P.'s, I accidentally inverted the pieces attached to the center square.  I decided it looked pretty cool and left it that way.  I think I may actually like it better, design-wise.  A happy accident.

And I must add that I really enjoyed quilting these. The free motion holly ~ well, it's organic, and proved to be a lot of fun to do. I remember when I started free motion quilting, I was terrified.  Now an unquilted project is my playground! (Cue the maniacal laughter.)

Wall-hanging: How Love Grows

How Love Grows

My cousin asked me to make this wall-hanging for her.  I was so flattered and thrilled to do it.  The piece measures 16" square, and was made completely by hand right down to the binding. 

Laurel chose the fabrics.  I love her selections.  I must admit I was a little daunted by the beige textured fabric she chose for the hearts.  It was a thicker than I would normally use for applique, but it worked just fine and adds so much interest.

In regard to quilting the green background, the design on the fabric itself showed me exactly where I should quilt.  No marking.  I just followed the designs.  It was so cool!

Interestingly enough, it would never have occurred to me to use a patterned fabric for the background.  I have always used patterned fabric for the centerpiece and plain fabric for the background in my previous works.  I've learned something!  I so love how the patterned fabric inspired the quilting, I will definitely do this again.  Thanks Laurel!

(And thanks to Eric for the picture that shows the quilting.)

Sunshine in Winter

With all of the turbulence of the last four months, I haven't had much opportunity to work on, much less complete, projects.  However, I did get one small (approximately 16" square) wall-hanging done, Sunshine in Winter.  It was a Christmas gift for P. at The Way I Sew It, who lives in Wisconsin.

I conceived of the project last summer when I was still living in sunny Nevada, and knew that P. would face a long Wisconsin winter.  For as long as I've been making the New York Beauty blocks, I've thought to myself that they look like sunbursts.  However, it wasn't until I tried to think of something cheery for P., that it occurred to me to try the New York Beauties in sunshiny colors.  (You all may have noticed that I tend to be a jewel tone, cool colors kind of gal.)

Finishing up the wall-hanging was a bright spot in amongst the trials of getting settled in a new home--a process that as yet continues.  I felt such satisfaction when I shipped off Sunshine in Winter.  Although the wall-hanging was wrapped in Christmas paper, I was secretly hoping that P. wouldn't wait until Christmas to open it.   Being a woman after my own heart, she didn't let the Christmas paper slow her down one bit, and opened it upon arrival. 

There's nothing like giving something quilted to another quilter.  Quilters know how to show appreciation for a quilty gift.  P. blogged about it here.  Her enjoyment has me walking on air.

Dresden Plate Wall-hanging

Some of you may remember that in May of this year, P. from The Way I Sew It, gave me the beautiful Dresden Plate that is now centered in the middle of this medallion wall-hanging top. I was pretty excited about receiving it and blogged about it here. On July the 4th, I finally came up with a plan to showcase the Dresden in a wall-hanging.  I am pleased to say that while it took me about 6 weeks to mull over how best to show off its beauty, the execution of the plan took less than a month.  That's a record for me!  (Hanging out with all you quilty bloggers has made me more organized.) True, it still needs to be quilted, but I am going to wait to do that until I've honed my free motion machine quilting skills just a bit more--or decide to hand-quilt it.

I used a textured black for the main body of the wallhanging. (If you click to make the pictures larger, the texture is more apparent.) The entire wall-hanging measures 24".  I debated about making it larger, but I wanted the borders to complement the Dresden Plate; not overwhelm it.  So I stopped at just two borders.  The inner pink-lavender border (Kona calls the color "Petunia") is only a 1/2 inch wide.  I'll admit that making the border so narrow gave me pause.  Instead of rotary cutting it as I ordinarily would for a wider border, I drew it out with pencil on the fabric and cut it out with scissors.

In order to sew accurately, I marked my 1/4 inch seam lines as well.  I was pleased with the result.

Finally, I added the ribbon border.  The instructions are from Quilter's Cache.  (She has lots of other border ideas on the site as well.)

The very last step was to hand-applique the Dresden to the wall-hanging.

I'll be linking up at one or more of the Friday Linky Parties shown in my sidebar.  There are always talented people sharing their latest creations at these Linky Parties, so be sure to check them out. You won't be disappointed!

A Quilty 4th of July Lift-Off

Some of you may remember back in May when P. from The Way I Sew It gifted me this lovely Dresden Plate. I blogged about it here.  At the time, P. was part of the  Dresden Plate Party hosted by Kristen at So Happy.  As P. blogged about the process and what she planned to do with the Dresden Plates she'd made, I put a not so subtle beg in the comment section.  It worked!  This lovely Dresden Plate soon arrived in my mailbox.  I was one lucky quilter!

When I received the Dresden Plate, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it.  It would become the center medallion for a small wall-hanging.  And although I've not worked on the wall-hanging physically since I received the Dresden Plate, I've been doing mental gymnastics trying to decide just how to show off its beauty the best.

I finally decided that a simple layout would be the surest way to do this lovely Dresden Plate justice, and so with the wonders of EQ (Electric Quilt), I auditioned several ideas.  This is the layout that I like the best.  (With the exception of the black background, ignore the colors.  I couldn't satisfactorily copy the colors in P.'s Dresden Plate, and the other colors are still up for debate.)

The Dresden Plate itself measures 13" in diameter.  The finished wall-hanging will measure 24".  The ribbon blocks on the outer border will be only 2" square.  Might be a bit of a challenge, but they are very simple to construct.

I'm excited that I can finally turn my attention to this project.  To that end, I did cut out the 16 1/2" black square to which the Dresden Plate will be appliqued.  Getting the Dresden Plate wall-hanging project off the ground was a fun way to spend 4th of July morning. 

I wish everyone a wonderful Independence Day!