Fabric plates and fences

This week I went to work first on the Williamsburg quilt project inspired last year by fences and boxwood hedges, green and white blocks of pinwheel fence parts. That was so original that I didn't make a pattern and now have a bunch of uneven sized blocks to try to resolve which has me in a real muddle. That awful feeling of not knowing how I want to solve the problem led me to set it aside and think  while I picked up another project I have been wanting to do for a very long time.

Fence and window and corners ?

pinwheel fence parts are the best but not evenly sized. 

Dresden plate is the only heirloom quilt in our family chest from my Mom's Grandmother who raised her in Roanoke Va. It's a simple design with wonderful vintage fabric patterns that I have always loved to look at and think about where these little bits of colorful fabric came from. I have been admiring other quilts on the net and Pinterest who use just blue and white fabrics so I decided to get a bunch of blue and white and do my first Dresden plate quilt using just those colors like a real Blue Willow Asian design of blues and white porcelain. I watched a couple tutorials on YouTube and got the basics of how to make the arrow shaped pieces... then assemble them. I got right to work and tonight I am happy to say in the first two days made up 4 plates. Two light and two dark to go on opposite back ground blocks in a checker board pattern. 

New tools make cutting exact shapes much easier. 

First block and first time I used the little micro iron to fold down small edges! Keith won this tiny iron on a stick at the Manassas Quilt show two years ago in the door raffle which I wasn't sure I would ever use. Now I can say I needed it for this quilt project. 

The first four blocks laid up on the felt wall. 

Dresden plate is the only heirloom quilt in our family chest from my Mom's Grandmother who raised her in Roanoke Va. It's a simple design with wonderful vintage fabric patterns. I have always loved to look over all the fabrics in that quilt and think about where these little bits of colorful fabric came from. I have been admiring other quilts on the Internet and Pinterest who use just blue and white fabrics. I collected a number of blue and white patterns and solids to use in my first Dresden plate quilt using just those colors like a real Blue Willow plate design of blue and white porcelain. Keith found a couple tutorials on YouTube and we got the basics of how to make the arrow shaped pieces... then assemble them. Yesterday I got right to work and tonight I am happy to have 4 plates pieces. Two light and two dark to go on opposite back ground blocks in a checker board pattern. I have some more choices to make on this one but it is going to go a little faster than the Rose Star Quilt because I am using my birthday gift from last year to sew up the blue and white designs from this year's gift. I believe I have to make 30 plates to cover an 90 x 108 sized top. It's going very well this time. Then I can get back to playing with the green and white Williamsburg project again and I have a urge to look at a red and white quilt after seeing the slides from the big show in NYC last year.