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.

UFOs by hand ...

This past week, I haven't done a lot of sewing, and what I have done has been hand-stitching.

My Vintage-Inspired English Paper Piecing has been a fun long-term project.

Right now, I'm adding whiteish diamonds around the edges. Finishing this row requires another 50 or so diamonds.

There'll be another row of colorful diamonds soon, but I'm not sure if that's next, or if I'll need more of the white-and-cream.

Even my kitty-quilt-inspector has been enjoying this project!

I'm linking this post to Jo's weekly UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction, and looking forward to seeing what UnFinished Objects other quilters have been working on!

UFOs Again

This week's Wednesday UFO report:

My Vintage-Inspired English Paper Piecing has finally seen some progress!

That left and top border have gotten another row of diamonds since last week. (See the "before/during" pic below.)

  

The current cream-and-white border is almost complete. It needs one more neutral row (almost 100 diamonds), and then a colorful row. I'm not sure what's next after that.

I'm working on my (elaborate) quilt back for my weather quilt. I've got about 130 of these (8-inch) triangle blocks made, which is plenty.

Lots of progress on this, and lots of scraps being incorporated! 

(This process has, of course, resulted in a bunch more colorful stuff partially assembled, which will become part of another project.)

I'm linking my UFO report to this week's link party at Jo's Country Junction.

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!

UFOs: These quilts are happening!

My UFOs have been coming along! 

Here's the short version: 

Finished Quilt Top: Hopscotch Butterscotch. This turned out big (75" x 88"), since I used mostly 2½" cut pieces, instead of the 2" in Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I love the organized randomness! I REALLY love the fancy piano-key border.

Still in the works: the quilting on my great-great grandmother's Dresden Plate. Haven't worked on it since last week; more details about this one in last week's post.

Up for border & quilting soon: the 1008 checkerboard.

Got a few stitches in this week: My modern Double Wedding Ring. I've almost got the 5-circles by 7-circles main section done. I last mentioned this quilt top in my initial UFO "goals" post here. Before that, it had been a while since I worked on it. Actually, I started this gorgeous thing about 3 years ago (2013: see this post and also this one), but then I didn't blog about it for another year (2014: see here). For whatever reason, I blogged about it one time a year ago (2015: see this post.) Who knows ... maybe this will be the year this one gets done! I'm not pressuring myself, but it does feel great to get these projects worked on!

Finished & Given away: Baby Happily Scrappily Irish. I blogged about it last Friday.

Got their portrait painted: A couple of quilts ... Two of my quilts served as inspiration for a friend's beautiful painting! See that post here.

 

I'm linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge update at Jo's Country Junction ... lots of other quilters are working on their "Un-Finished Objects", and a weekly link party helps remind us to keep up the good work.

UFOs are coming right along!

This Dresden Plate quilt top has been a special treat to work on. 

It was beautifully hand-pieced by my great-great grandmother, sometime before I was born. My mom inherited the quilt top many years ago, and, more recently, she asked if I would be able to quilt it. 

I'm loving the chance to work on a project that's been a work-in-progress for  so many decades.

I love this gorgeous vintage quilt top, and hope that my quilting will do it justice.

In other news, Hopscotch Butterscotch has some great progress to show: all the blocks & sashings are put together! The borders are prepped! The quilt top is nearly done!

Because I already had lots & lots of 2 ½" pieces cut, but the pattern calls for 2" cut ... I decided to go with the bigger pieces, and just make a bigger quilt.

I'm really glad that Jo's Country Junction is hosting a UFO Challenge ... it's been a great motivator to get progress -- any progress -- happening. I'm linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge.

Check back in a couple days to see my finished Happily Scrappily Irish little quilt.

Martha's Colorful Vintage Quilt

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of doing the finishing work on this quilt for my friend Martha.

Every now and then, I get to participate in a really long-term project. Quilting this quilt was the final step in a project that Martha's mother started a few decades ago.

The quilt top had been ready-to-quilt for many, many years, but there had been no one to quilt it.

When Martha offered to pay me to do the quilting, I hesitated a little, since I don't consider myself a "pro" at quilting yet. But Martha wasn't in a hurry, and she said I could quilt it however I wanted to.

Since I love to make quilts, I'm fascinated by quilt-construction processes. One of the things I love about this quilt top is that it was foundation-pieced: the strips of quilt fabric were all stitched to a "foundation" square of fabric. Once the foundation square was covered in fabric strips, any excess was trimmed from the edges, and each square was stitched to other squares. 

(Here's what the quilt top looked like from the back - foundation squares in white and green.)

Another thing that's impressive is the variety of fabrics in this quilt. All colors & styles of fabric, including shirt & dress fabrics, flannels, florals, stripes, novelty fabrics, heavier fabrics and lighter fabrics -- they work together to make an amazing scrap quilt!

Martha said that her mother sewed clothes, often for other people, and that she made quilts from her fabric scraps.

For the quilting, I used my favorite machine quilting style -- a free-motion meander. Light-green thread blended well with the light-colored fabrics, and contrasted well with the dark fabrics.

 

When Martha asked if I would quilt this quilt top, she let me choose the backing and binding fabrics. 

The blue floral is the fabric I picked for backing, and the solid blue binding turned out just right.

This is a big quilt -- in this picture, the quilt top is lying on a queen-sized bed, with about 12 inches of overhang on all sides.

It really makes me happy to be able to finish-up-and-make-usable a quilt project that's been in the works for all these years.

Half of the quilt is showing in this picture ...

... and the other half is visible here.

I'm honored that Martha trusted me with finishing her mom's quilt.

I'm glad she can use and enjoy it now.

I'm glad I got to enjoy working on it.

Quilts can be, in many ways, links to little parts of history. This one certainly is. It reminds Martha of what it was like watching her mother at the sewing machine, doing the work she did so well. It gives me a glimpse into the life of a lady I never met, who, several decades ago, had jobs and hobbies that were probably a lot like mine.

 

After I quilted this quilt, Martha sent me home with another one to finish up! That one's done now, too, and I'm hoping to blog about it soon, as well.