Swirly Twirly Dresden

When the Central Florida MQG came up with a member challenge - "Traditional Made Modern" - due at the November 14 meeting, I needed to do something quick and fairly easy. I remembered a foundation paper-pieced design I had bookmarked months ago, and it suited my purposes perfectly - a Dresden Plate design made modern.

It was fun to go through my stack of Blueberry Park fabrics - still a favorite collection - to come up with a rainbow range of colors. The FPP was easy to do, though I stitched beyond the edge of the design, past the perimeter of the circle, so as to make my circle slightly larger. 

After the FPP, I cut a circle from linen fabric to hand-appliqué to the center, on top of the FPP. Then I cut a circle from a large square of background linen to lay on top of the FPP for reverse appliqué. Because I left some extra seam allowance, I could turn back the outer circle to the size I needed, hand-appliqué it, and turn the piece over to trim away the excess seam allowance.

I picked a bright backing, and made an envelop finish with binding, per this tutorial by FreshlyPieced. It's my favorite way to put a pillow together.

This free foundation paper-pieced pattern is from Vicki at Orchid Owl Quilts. You can find it here on the QuiltingLodgeBlog.

By the way, per a viewer's choice ballot, my pillow placed fourth in our Central Florida MQG challenge. First place went to my friend Karen, also formerly from Iowa, who's holding the aqua quilt on the left. She quilted it beautifully on her sit-down Tiara machine. Friend Cindy, formerly from Montana, placed second with her broken herringbone pillow. Susan's hanging placed third.

L-R: Karen, me, Cindy, Susan

Linda
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