Pages

Thursday, May 13, 2010

why are there so many... posts about rainbows?

Thank heavens that the day has only improved since my early morning wake-up in the midst of a house-shaking thunderstorm! Don't you hate when the real low point of the day is right at the start? Mine went something like this:

My husband (at 5:00am shaking me): "honey, I need you to get up and call the plumber... the water is almost to the top of the sump pit."

Me: "S#*T"

Fabulous. But a few hours (and many dollars) later, we are now the proud owners of a brand-new, super-exciting sump pump that is happily pumping away in the basement as I write. And it has stopped raining. And the water never actually crested the top of the pit. So I'm very thankful that a phone call and little bit of money were able to fix what could have been a disaster.

Now on to more fun topics. My happy, happy Dresden Plate pillow top is ready to be quilted! I am just pleased as punch with how it turned out! I used my new "Easy Dresden" ruler by Darlene Zimmerman and cut all the segments at 7" long. Then I folded them long-ways, right sides together and stitched a 1/4" seam along the top (widest) edge.
Don't they look like happy pennants all chained together here? Then I snipped the corner of each folded edge, turned the each piece right side out (while centering the seam line along the center length of the wrong side) and pressed, forming a crisp finished point. All the segments are then sewn together with a 1/4" seam. I pressed my seams open so the entire unit would lay flat, but you can press to the side if you prefer. After all that, you have a completed plate ready to sew to the background.
My plate will be a finished 18" pillow, so I cut my background (Moda Bleached White) at 20"square. Fold the background in half both length- and width-wise, finger pressing a crease so you can center the plate properly. In the photo above you can see my fold lines that line up with seams on the plate.
I used MonoPoly invisible thread to sew the plate on to the background. My stitches are very close to the edge of the plate.
The ruler came with a paper circle template for cutting the center. I used true red since I didn't already have that color present in any of the plate segments. The center is fused to the plate and background with Steam a Seam 2 and machine blanket-stitched with matching red thread to secure. I haven't yet decided how to quilt it, so it's back to the WIP pile for this little beauty.
We are actually having some brief moments of sunshine this afternoon. I do LOVE spring, but could do without all that thunderstorm drama! I hope you are all high and dry today!

7 comments:

  1. I love love love rainbows and I love love love dresden plates so this is rainbow dresden heaven for me. I remember moving to our current house two years ago and being woken in the night a few days later by a clap of thunder and the whole house fusing and the burglar alarm going off full volume. We didn't know where the fuse box was and we didn't know the burglar alarm code and it was pitch black and we didn't know where a torch was. I know the feeling you had this morning at 5am!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh there are so many different quilting blocks that I need to try!

    I love your dresdens.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the Dresden Plate - yet another thing to add to my must-try list!!

    Why do all the disaster things always happen at such unfriendly hours?? Hope it's smooth sailing for you now!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my! This is beautiful!! It's also on my to do list! :)

    I'm also glad you got your sump pump disaster fixed! Gotta love those early morning wake ups to get your day started!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is the title of this blog supposed to be sung to the Kermit tune about rainbows? Now I have that song in my head. "Why are there so many songs about rainbows?"

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm so glad that your sump pump drama didn't go any further than needing a new pump....although I know that is expensive! Love your dresden pillow.......you have so made so many great pillows...such inspiration!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading a little bit about me and taking the time to comment! Have a wonderful day!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...