My first Memory Quilt

Here it is. My first attempt at a memory quilt. I have never done a Dresden Plate either, so there is another first I can cross off my list.

I saw a wonderful quilt on Pinterest a couple weeks back that was adorable. It had taken Dresden Plates and made them butterfly's. I thought that was a wonderful idea and looked so wonderful.

It was called the Dresden Butterflies by Susan Jensen.

It was cute so I created my own take on it. The quilt is not finished obviously. I am trying to decide what color to make the outside border and I am going to be adding 1/4 Dresden Plates in each corner also.

This Dresden Plate was not too hard. I appliqued it with a special butterfly stitch that looks really neat when it is with the entire quilt. I did not think it was too hard to do this plate. I have to learn to do applique a little better too. I have not done much of it and I can never get my edges to look professional yet.

Each of the butterflies are either yellow or green. I love the butterfly and dragonfly print that I used for the bodies. I still have to add antennae to the butterflies yet though.

I am also looking at the quilt trying to figure out what kind of quilting I am going to do. I have noticed that there is a lot of negative space on this quilt. I will have to brush up on my quilting skills before I quilt this one.

The pictures on the quilt are of my Grandmother Signe, who taught me how to sew and quilt. She was the one who also taught me crocheting and inspired me to continue sewing. I am sewing on her machine too, my mother gave it to me along with Grandma's serger too. I have definitely been using it quite a bit lately.

I will be posting more when I get more done on it.

Until then I hope you enjoy the pictures and the little story too.

Easter project

So this last weekend I decided I needed to spruce up the house. The first thing I decided needed to be done was to start on my spring cleaning. I got through the kitchen and dining room. I then decided I was done with that and I needed to do a project. It was nearing late afternoon and so I wanted something I could get most of the way done this weekend and it definitely had to be along the Easter lines. So I decided, table runner. They are smaller so less time and it was in the realm of being a weekend project. I went to my scrap boxes and started pulling out pinks and purples and blues that were light and spring and Easter colors. I then decided it needed bunnies. So I sat down and drew out a bunny. He was good so I created a pattern template of the bunny and decided I needed three of them. I then had to decide what blocks I wanted on the ends. I chose a block out of the McCall's 100 block magazine for the ends. I wanted to put them on point so it looked better and not just a rectangle. I then decided I wanted to add a border around all of it.

Here are the three bunnies. I decided I wanted to bend the ear of the middle bunny, so I cut two ears for the one side so when I bent it I had the right side of the fabric showing. The bunnies were pretty easy. I just used a blanket stitch around them to make it look more country looking. I am not that good at applique yet so I made it easy.

Here it is. I still have to choose a backing and quilt it yet. I think I will go with a blue for the back and bind it in a pink. I am still deciding. It is sitting on my hope chest and I have been looking at it for a couple days now. I am still contemplating on the quilting I will do though.


Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a joyous Easter. I will post the completed project when I get it done.