Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Say Yes To The Dress is Finished!

Ta-da!



Finally done and it only took about 18 months.  To be fair to myself, I worked on it off and on, not continuously.  And there are many hours in all the hand applique and hand quilting.

Here's a closer look at the quilting.  I quilted a grid behind each dress form, which helps the dress pop off the background.



And I quilted a swirl design in the border, using a stencil I had on hand.  Even though I washed the quilt to get the markings out, a few faint pencil lines remain, fortunately hardly noticeable.  I used a Sewline pencil to mark the quilting lines in the border.  I used painters tape for the grid. 



I'm very happy with it and think it will look terrific hanging in my sewing room.  But when I showed it to Mr. Main Street, he said, "What are those?  Trees?"  Thank God, I have you, Dear Readers, for a little appreciation!  (It is highly likely that Mr. Main Street had never heard of nor seen a dress form until now.)

The pattern I used for Say Yes To The Dress is called Pretty Dresses and is in the book Quilting With My Sister, by Barbara Brandeburg and Teri Christopherson.   The book is out of print but available on Amazon.com.  And they have released the design as an individual quilt pattern

The original design is 16 dress blocks, set four by four and finishes at 50" by 58".  I made my version smaller by reducing the number of blocks and it is 38" by 44".  Also, the original design calls for fusible applique but I added seam allowances and used needleturn applique.

The pattern calls for small pieces of lots of different prints so it is a great user-upper of scraps and stash.  I enjoyed unleashing my inner fashionista to pick out the various dress prints!  And the only thing I had to buy for this quilt was thread to match the fabrics for the applique.  I even had a piece of batting on hand.

What's next?

 

6 comments:

  1. this is adorable! I love the dresses love that you hand quilted it , it really shows up and looks great!
    Kathie

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  2. What a precious and beautiful quilt! I love all the hand quilting, it really lends to the loveliness of this piece.
    Congratulations on an amazing finish!

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  3. The quilt is beautiful....I love it, little trees! My dad admired a mini quilt that my sister made and told her that her potholder was pretty!

    Gloria
    gyates625@bellsouth.net

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  4. Adorable quilt ! Your hand quilting is Amazing ! Congrats on a great finish !

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  5. That quilt is adorable. I take this post as an answer to my prayers. My niece was looking for ideas to make a quilt out her daughters clothing. I think that this would be a perfect quilt to make.

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  6. It's beautiful! And all that hand quilting! Mr. Main Street could at least appreciate that, couldn't he? Congratulations on a wonderful finish!

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