Dainty Dresdens

Dainty Dresdens is the third miniature quilt in the McCalls Mini Madness quilt along.  I started making the dresden plates in my February quilt retreat and put it on the back burner while working on the quilt show preparations.  

The McCalls version features red Dresden plates on a background of yellow and green which felt very country and holiday seasonal.  Instead, I went for a pop of pink for the flower blades and used two different black and white prints for the sashing and border.  However, when it came to deciding on the sashing cornerstones and background fabrics, I was truly stumped.  I started with some lime green fabrics which looked great but then stumped me on the background fabrics.  So many pieces of fabric were pulled out from the stash, auditioned, cut up for more auditioning and nothing really excited me.  I even tried looking at different border fabrics and alternate colorways and still nothing.  Finally, I landed on a triadic colorway of teal, pink and yellow which I really liked.    

The hardest part of Dainty Dresdens:  Selecting colors and fabrics!!  Pile of fabrics auditioned and the chosen colorway.

Look at all those teeny tiny hand stitches!

The Quilt Along instructional videos highlighted hand applique, but did give an option for machine applique, which resonated to my practical side.  But then Season 4 of Game of Thrones DVDs arrived in the mail which was the perfect opportunity to squeeze in some hand applique.  The Dresden plates were all done in one night's viewings, with the fussy cut center circles done for the next round of Game of Thrones.  The handwork made for some productive stitching as I caught up on all the deception and treachery throughout the 7 Kingdoms!

Once the top was pieced and assembled, it was time to add some quilted texture!  I added some spirals and swirls in and around the pink blades.  The solid teal background was just calling for some hyperquilted feathers with bright pink and yellow Aurifil thread.  The border print got some embellished quilting for a pop of pink.    

A final pop of pink piping was added around the center unit and inside the binding...love it!

Dainty Dresdens finished at 19.5"x 19.5"

One more miniature quilt to come as part of this series...but it requires quite a bit of paper piecing which I have yet to start...so it may be a while until its ready to post.  Stay tuned!