Today is the Day! Dare to Dresden BLog Hop!

 It's that time of the month again- WHN has entered another blog hop and today is her day!  The BIG REVEAL as it were!  This month, the fabulous Madame Samm  and Christine of Quilt Monster in My Closet  have put their beautiful heads together and challenged quilters in the blogosphere to give Dresden Plate blocks a try! Now, all of you know that WHN is starting to pawticipate in more of these blog hops and that is a very good thing- it keeps her out of our furs!  This month, WHN's quilting experiment is being introduced by the newest Dachsie With Moxie, our foster brother Snoopy!  Over to you Snoopmeister!

Thanks for that great intro, Chip and Tasha!  Life here has been simply crazy- having just moved in on December 1st, I was a bit shellshocked after having three homes in three weeks and it took some time to settle in, but boy is WHN out of control!  Chip and Tasha are NOT exaggerating at all about this- this woman is in dire need of serious snoopervision and since I have just been promoted to Senior Security Consultant for Dachshund Security LLC, I am taking the job seriously! We three take turns in the "sling" so we can monitor her progress (we insist that she wear a baby sling around her neck for our comfort- she is simply too silly to realize that surveillance is best conducted up close and personal!)  This makes our job harder when she wanders off mumbling to herself, in the direction of her sewing room.  Chip and Tasha use the trundle bed, leaving me either on the floor or in the Big Bed off duty. Last month she pawticpated in the "In Your Words" blog hop and made some Maxine themed items and some British items to go with her Christmas loot! instead of taking a break, the very next day she started making her Dresden plates for today.  Now, she has NEVER made them before so we insisted that she watch a YouTube video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company to get some idea as to what she was doing- that helped a lot!  She was also inspired by Melissa Corry's Double Dresden  tutorial and used that as the basis for this masterpiece!.  Using 7/8 of a yard of Keep Calm and Quilt On fabric from her favorite LQS, Jackman's Fabrics, and white muslin yardage from her stash, plus double batting, she decided to make a bed runner so that I don't get cold while I am off duty!  I helped her cut the Dresden plates out with her nifty Dresden ruler, and then sat on her sewing table as she pieced them together!  She had enough for four full dresden blocks and 18 blade of a larger one which she used to great effect on either end of the runner.  She then sewed them down on the quilt top.  The only trouble she had was pinning the backing and backing to the top- that took most of one day since the fabric kept bunching up no matter how many pins she used (and she used lots of pins, every inch or less to get a firm grip)  Dad finally had to take things in hand and help with this.  She flipped it and then appliqued everything a second time with a blanket stitch on her Baby Lock- she was concerned about my toes getting caught on the baldes of the Dresden.  Then she started to quilt using free motion quilting motifs that she learned lst year during the year long FMQ challenge hosted by SewCal Gal.  Now, we know that her fmq is rusty, but she gave it the good college try and finished yesterday afternoon.  She washed the quilt and dried it to make sure it was super soft for my sensitive skin, and voila, I have my very own bed blankie!


Please enjoy the photos of what I helped WHN make, and make sure you visit the other ladies exhibiting their works of art today!

January 31^th, 2013

Quilting Prolifically

Patchouli Moon Studio

Mountain Quiltworks

In Ga

Dachsies with Moxie

Color My World

Shepody Mountain Crafter

Christa Quilts

Moosestash Quilting

Lavender Quilts

Never 2 Many Quilts

Clothes and Crafts
Cathy's Chatter

Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt 

Dad holding the bed runner up for the world to see!

Checking out to see if WHN forgot a spot!

Close up of an end plate

Close up of one of the four plates