Quilts Revisited: The Vintage Dresden Plate Quilt

So, I've realized that in my quilty blog, there are a ton of projects I've forgotten to blog about. Hence, I'll be posting occasionally in my "Quilts Revisited" series -- projects I'm revisiting because I didn't give them their moment on the blog when I finished them.

My great-great-grandmother's Dresden Plate quilt. I blogged about this quilt only a couple of times ... I was working on it in 2016 and blogged about it here, then briefly here in 2017. Then, here in 2018, I started to write about how I had finished it up in 2017. 

Anyway, I never posted the finished pictures, so here they are. Behold, my great-great-grandmother's hand-pieced Dresden Plate quilt!

My great-great-grandmother, Minnie Belle Causbie Foreman, died before I was born. But she was known to be a wonderful quilter, and my mom inherited some of her finished quilts and some of her quilt tops.

A few years ago (ahem, 2013, but who's counting?), my mom sent me the four quilt tops she had inherited that needed to be quilted. We decided that machine-quilting would be the best thing, and my mom trusted me to do the quilting. Even though these vintage quilt tops were hand-pieced, none of us was ever going to hand-quilt them. 

To begin with, I added an outer border since the quilt had none. For the border, I didn't find an exact match to the sashing color, but I decided to go a shade darker, and the effect is nice. I quilted each Dresden and all the sashings and borders with a swirly design that sort of echoes the swirly fabric I chose for the backing. 

 

I do all of my quilting on a regular domestic sewing machine. As I've gotten more practice over the years, I enjoy the free-motion quilting process more and more. 

After all my procrastinating on this one, the quilting went remarkably smoothly. I'm sure it helps that I'd practiced this quilting design on a couple of smaller projects first.

I really LOVE the vibrant colors in this quilt. Such variety!

In a way, it feels a little like I got to collaborate on a project with my great-great-grandmother, which is pretty awesome. She and I didn't get to meet each other, but I got to finish her quilt. How awesome is that?!

I quilted some wording into the border of the quilt, along with the dates my great-great grandmother lived ... it says, "Hand-pieced by Minnie Belle Causbie Foreman, 1871-1972."

My mom has been enjoying the quilt. I'm so glad that, after all these years, she gets to enjoy using this beautiful quilt top she inherited, since it's finished now.

The Vintage Dresden Plate Quilt

Every now and then, I realize that there are some quilts I've worked on that I never blogged about. So, from time to time, I'll try to "catch up" and blog about them.

This gorgeous Dresden Plate quilt top was made by my great-great-grandmother. The Dresden Plates were stitched by hand!

My mom was privileged to inherit several pieces of her great-grandmother's handiwork, including a couple of finished quilts, and a few quilt tops.

This is one of those quilt tops. A few years ago, my mom asked if I could quilt it, along with three other quilt tops that had waited so long to be quilted.

I spent a long time planning and procrastinating on the Dresden Plate, worrying about how to machine-quilt such a beautiful vintage piece. I needed to be able to give it stability without detracting from its awesomeness. I finally settled on a design, and finished the quilting.

I'll be posting pictures of the finished quilt soon, with more pictures!

One of the (many!) really cool things about this quilt is that this is an unfinished project of my Great-great grandmother's. She died before I was born. So, I never got to see her hand-stitch her many quilt projects. But it feels pretty good to have shared in finishing this project of hers.

Sunday sewing ...

This quilt has been my Sunday afternoon project for the past couple of weeks. I'm just finishing up the quilting on this beauty. It's been in progress for a long, long time. I wasn't the one who started this quilt, but I'm pretty happy that I get to be the one that finishes it! More details later!