Dresden Plate Top done!

I finally finished my first Dresden Plate quilt (there will be more!), started with Bunny Hill's Dresden Plate quilt-a-long.  It was not without a few mishaps though.

This photo does not show contrast very well, but here it is...

The fabrics in this quilt are all from an older Flower Sugar line by Lecien that I originally purchased a couple of years ago.  First issue was when I realized I ran out of background fabrics for the plates, I went scrambling for more.  While I did find it, my friend just informed me (while looking at the finished quilt), that the fabrics are not identical.  I don't know whether it was the first or second purchase that has WAY more dots....see....

Didn't notice that - probably still wouldn't have noticed until she pointed it out to me.  She suggested I could take the quilt apart and re-sew them in a checkerboard to make it look like I meant to do that.  Ummm, nope.

So, I'm putting my rows together and I could not eek out enough of the red sashing fabric for the last row.  I was four strips short.  I looked on-line for more.  No luck.  This is a problem with a capital "P"!!  I put a scrap in my purse and just hoped I would find something similar enough to work on my quilt shop/show travels someday and folded up the quilt and the remaining blocks and put it away.  Then, on a whim, I checked on eBay to see if maybe, just maybe, I could find some (I know I looked on eBay before).  I could not believe it, but the Unique Fabric Palette had some!  If I could, I would have kissed that shop owner!

So, the Dresden Plate quilt saga is just about finished.  I just hope I have enough of the red fabric left over for the binding  o:)

Projectus Interuptus

As I mentioned in my last post, this summer seems like it has started to fly by all of a sudden!  I think because I had a list of quilty things I was going to get done this summer and it's looking like that's not going to happen.  I had it all planned out and now it feels like it's all just blown out the window.  Why?  Because we're leaving for vacation at the end of the week and by the time we get back, summer's over!  One of my goals set in Spring was to make a "summery" quilt this summer.  I guess I'm going to have to say Beach Cottage was my summery quilt because that top is done (though not quilted yet).  However, I wanted it to be Seaside Cotillion...

No the greatest photo of the quilt pattern, but it very lovely.  Really.  So, I started, as you see above.  Made all of my strips and even got two of the blocks done.  I was very organized, had all the strips laid out in order on my cutting table so I could easily put them together to sew my blocks.  Then I realized, OH MY GOODNESS, it's August!  Before I go on vacation I need to not only get my Jelly Roll Sampler block #12 finished, but I've got to get the whole top together so I can put it in the contest!  And, I've got to get my A Year of Schnibbles August quilt finished.  It's not even started.  I don't even have the fabric for it.  So, I hop right on the internet and quickly decide I'm using Prayer Flag..I've got to tell you, I am loving this fabric for my quilt...

I'm doing the Plan C Schnibble this month.  The other choice was Short Story, but I'm doing the larger version of that (already have the two layer cakes of Sultry by Basic Grey) in Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles Times Two book, and I certainly don't have time to make a larger quilt at this point!  So, Plan C it is!  Luckily, I had the fabric in two days and started right in.  However, that meant that my grand plan to catch up on my Snowbound BOM by making 4 blocks in August also flew right out the window.  Along with quilting Madeline, Joy Luck, Cameos and Beach Cottage.  (I also have to fess up - I won another gift certificate in the A Year of Schnibbles contest for Joy Luck - this has been most lucrative - LOL!  Not only am I getting all of these awesome quilts that I probably wouldn't have made, but I can keep buying more fabric!)  Also, off the radar until fall is the Dresden Plate quilt that has been itching to go from my mind to fabric.  Even got the handy-dandy EZ Dresden Ruler and this lovely Lecien fabric - Flower Sugar.  On clearance no less!

(Turn your head to the side now - sorry about that!)

I am quilt-stressed.  As I said, we leave at the end of next week.  And I have to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.  Last weekend, as I mentioned not one stitch got sewn.  Putting aside everything else, I still have to get the JRS quilt put together and my Plan C Schnibble top completed and posted before I go.  Now, what happens if they don't get done and I don't post them?  Nothing.  I just don't get to be in the contests that month. (And I probably should be in either because I've already won two prizes in Schnibbles and a prize in JRS).  Not the end of the world, not even a big deal.  Except I hate to have committed to something (even in my mind) and not follow through.  But, it really remains to be seen if I do finish.  Because things like, oh, maybe packing for the big trip, definitely have to take precedence!  Stay tuned!