I See Fire Quilt

For our local guild exhibition, we set a challenge based around the dresden plate block.  The idea was to make a small (36" square or smaller) quilt using one or more dresden plates, but to put your own twist on the block.

This quilt was my entry.  As you might be able to tell from the name, it was inspired by this Ed Sheeran song.  I wanted to create a fiery lava like background with dark swirling bits.  This quilt was a long time in the making - I started back in April, although I was plotting it for a while before that.

 

The background is made up of 2" finished squares cut from my stash of peach/red/purple fabrics - a combination I've had pulled for more than 2 years.  The dresden pieces are made from a variety of fabrics, but mostly from a bundle of black based fabrics from Distressed Threads.  The added a heap of interest and variety to these little pieces (and yes, all those dresden blades were a huge pain in the neck to make!).

 I joined all the dresden blades together in groups of five (quarter circles), and then joined them in a slightly random meandering pattern.  I stitched all the dresden blades in place using a straight stitch.  Once the top was finished, I straight line quilted around all the dresdens, and then quilted swirls and pebbles in the background.  I used two layers of batting to make the quilting really stand out, which worked quite well.

Because the top is quite busy and all that quilting can get a bit lost, I wanted to use something solid on the back.  You definitely get a better look at the quilting, and you can also tell that I used a red and light pink variegated thread.

I was really happy with this finished quilt - it was definitely quite a jump out of my comfort zone and is probably the closest I've come to making an art quilt (although it's definitely still very abstract!).  I'm even more happy now because it won a merit award in its category at the show!  My Garden for Birds 2 quilt won two merit awards as well - one in its category of small bed quilt made by one person, and one as a quilt by a first time entrant.  A pretty good haul of ribbons from my first ever exhibition, I reckon!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: original design
Finished Size: approx 34" square

Fabric: many

Backing: Oakshott shot cotton

Binding: Skull Stripe, from Dem Bones by Sarah Watson for Cloud 9 Fabrics

Pieced and quilted by: me

I'll be linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.