Dresden Chocolates

Earlier this year I found the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild EZ Dresden Challenge while browsing the web looking for Dresden Plate quilts.  I already had Darlene Zimmerman's EZ Dresden ruler sitting in a drawer for months. I picked it up with a 50 per cent off coupon thinking I would someday make a quilt just like Grandma used to make but with 30s reproduction fabrics and muslin and an EZ ruler and rotary cutter and...well, the quilt wouldn't really be just like Grandma used  to make with all those modern conveniences.  So, I went searching for some more modern Dresden Plate ideas and the challenge bug hit me. (I do love a good challenge even if it's a personal journey).

I've been on a kick making lap quilts with fabrics consisting of some of my favorite things. (So far I've finished Hi Ho Cherrio!  celebrating my love of Cherries). I figure someday when I may have to go to a nursing home (heaven forbid) I'll take some of my favorite things with me.   Anyway...one of my very favorite things is Chocolate...chocolate chips, chocolate cookies, chocolate cupcakes, mocha coffee, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream, strawberries dipped in chocolate...so that's what this quilt is all about...a love of CHOCOLATE.  So, I dug into my stash of chocolates (I don't buy collections of fabrics just hoard the ones that appeal to me), ordered up some Kona Cocoa for a background fabric and started off cutting up chocolates.  I was skeptical that a ruler would make light work of so many pieces, but it really did. Good thing, too, because I knew I would be working massive hours of overtime in July and August so knew I had to work quickly to finish my quilt if I wanted to enter it in the challenge.

I also challenged myself to do some hand quilting. I've seen quilts on blogs quilted with perle cotton #8 and knew that was what I wanted to use. And, since I love variegated threads I purchased some variegated brown for the quilting and a new quilting hoop for my lap (or is it an embroidery hoop?)  also with a 50 per cent off coupon. I bought a few different types of thimbles also but decided building up a callous and using it was easier than using any type of thimble.  Another challenge was quilting during the hottest part of the summer without air conditioning. (No, this old farm house does not have A/C). Unfortunately I didn't sweat off any calories ;-(

Here's some of my imperfect hand quilting up close and personal - the design I quilted between the Dresdens.  There's actually a double row of stitching there but where the dark brown thread starts the stitching blends into the background. And that's all right with me.

So, now my challenge entry is finished and the time to blog about it and link it up has arrived. So, without further ado...I'll force some quilt pictures on you all...

The yellow, turquoise and lime green centers and strips in the border are rather bright for me (even looking through sunglasses). I couldn't decide what to use for the center of the Dresdens and several people suggested using some of the colors that  were in some of the fabrics. Most of the fabrics were pink and brown so I decided to pick up the aqua, yellow and lime green.  It has grown on me now. If I hadn't taken the suggestions from others I probably would have used some drab, darker brown for the centers.  I also made some mini dresden fans for the corners. 

 All Dresdens on deck...

The backing and binding fabrics were on sale too at Connecting Threads. How lucky was that? Now it's all washed and crinkly and ready for my lap this winter.  The only thing missing is the label. I couldn't decide on a name...Dessert Plates, I Spy Chocolate, I Love Chocolate, Pass the Chocolates and other things came into my mind. But I THINK the label will read Dresden Chocolates as the name. But, it's not labeled yet!

Also linking up to Freemotion by the River Tuesday Linky Party.