Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Dresden Plates - making the wedges


I spent all day Tuesday making the wedges on my Dresden plates and butterflies. I will have 6 plates and 6 butterflies, rotating them every other one on the quilt. I did not finish until 9 pm last night and did not have time to write this post. It literally took me all day!   I was at a friend's house today helping her.  She's pregnant and her energy level is very low right now, so I did not get any sewing done today.  If you missed my post about cutting the wedges, you can see it here.
I had my wedges sorted into the colors I wanted, by order placement around the circle, then neatly stacked by plate or butterfly.
The top row is the plates and the bottom row is the butterflies.  While I was sewing, Pippi decided I needed some help.




She had to knock around the threads and touch the stacks and then throw the piles around!
At least she did not mess up all of them!
First I folded the widest side (top) of the wedge, right sides together, and finger pressed them.
Then sew across the top with a 1/4 inch seam.  If you do not have a quarter inch seam foot, I highly recommend getting one.  I love mine!
It's actually easier if you sew with the folded side going under the foot first, it is less likely to be eaten by your feed dogs. (get it?  the dogs will eat your fabric?  I know, lame pun, but it's been a long day!) I chain stitched one plate or butterfly at a time, this was to keep each block on the same string.
I had a pile when I was finished.
Next you need to snip the top corners, above your stitch.  This helps with the bulk when you turn your wedge right side out.
 You want your tip of the wedge at the top, and iron it down.
Be sure to make the sides even.

Your wedges will look like this when you are done.  I was really happy with the pattern on this one!
I re-sorted and planned out  the order of my wedges in the plates.  Here are my piles.  I then clipped them together in case Pippi decides to help again.

This is what my plate will look like when I am done, I'm hoping to get 20 wedges on each plate.  I tried to make the pattern placement a little different on some of the plates.
My plan for tomorrow is to sew them all together.  Did I mention I have given myself a goal of finishing this quilt by my birthday on September 30?  I also need to clean my kitchen and get my lesson ready for my children's class at church tomorrow.  I have to read the directions on how to sew them together.  I am reading several different tutorials and patterns and then doing what I want.  I am thinking of maybe putting yo yo's in the middle with a button.  What do you think?
If you have any questions or suggestions let me know, this is my first Dresden plate quilt!
Missy

7 comments:

  1. Your quilt's coming along beautifully, Missy! Juggling this project with everything else you've got going on is a lot, but I'm cheering for you ~ to finish by your birthday:)

    ~Cindy

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  2. This is looking very promising! Love the green!

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  3. Missy, your Dresden wedges are beautiful -- love the greens and blues! And Pippi is a darling! Calicoes are such personable cats! :)

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  4. I love the colors that you have picked for this quilt - very soothing. I love sewing "with" my cat but not when they rearrange things as your Pippi did. It was fun to see the picture progression tho :) Thanks for joining Feline Friday!

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  5. Missy, Your plate looks gorgeous! I just finished one a few weeks ago, if you want to visit my blog I have a tutorial of how to make a perfect circle for the middle. You can find the tutorial here (scroll down because I did a tute also how to make the plates) http://katisquilting.blogspot.com/2012/07/lets-get-acquainted-blog-hop.html
    I find that for me it's better to start sewing the plates from the raw edges since they always shift and if you start at the fold the edges can come uneven. You can see my finished quilt here: http://katisquilting.blogspot.com/2012/08/dresden-quilt-finished.html

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  6. Whoop whoop!! That's a lot of beautiful wedges!! It's going to be a really pretty quilt....

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  7. Whoop whoop!! That's a lot of beautiful wedges!! It's going to be a really pretty quilt....

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