Dresden Flower

A few weeks ago I blogged about participated in a "Project Quilting" Flora Challenge.  At the time, I didn't finish the wall hanging I designed.  



My kids, especially CJ, love this quilt.  My husband was impressed by confused.  He really didn't get the whole wall hanging thing.  He asked me what I was going to do with such a small quilt.  When I told him it was a wall hanging he gave me the funniest look and said, "we're going to start hanging your quilts on the walls now?" I just said "Yep!  Ya like it?"  He wisely said it was beautiful. 

 Since finishing the top the quilt has just sat on my ironing board waiting for me to quilt it.  I must have looked at it a dozen times everyday.  I just couldn't seem to bring myself to finish it.  Finally I just decided to buckle down and quilt it.  While I was basting the quilt sandwich it suddenly dawned on me... my kids love the quilt, my hubby loved the quilt, the wonderful lady at my LQS loved the quilt, I just liked the quilt.  There was something that just wasn't working for me.

I got basic idea for this quilt from this video tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  (If you have never watched their videos or visited their site it is soooo worth your time.  They are one of my very favorite online shops and the have great videos.)  They used a 5 in blade in their project.  I wanted to use larger blades, and make it a double Dresden so I used an 8 in blade for the outer plate and a 5 in blade for the inner plate.  For my stem, even though you can't see it in the photos, I used a 2 in ribbon which I gathered in the center then added 1 in ric-rac on top of the ribbon. 

I finally realized it was the stem I didn't like.  It just seemed out of proportion with the flower and distracted from the amazing fabric and the over all impression of the flower.  So... I took out all the safety pins, did a lot of unstitching and repositioning and finally finished the quilt.  I did the quilting and binding and hung it on my wall (all be it with a clothes hanger cause I don't have the right hardware yet).  I love, love, love it now. 



I love the beautiful hand dyed fabrics of the flower and boarder and the batik back ground



CJ, my sweet guy, didn't agree with my choice to change the quilt top.  He still likes it but refuses to call the quilt a flower now.  He calls it the sun quilt now.