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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Traditional Dresden Entry and I have RED tomatoes!

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.  -Robert Louis Stevenson


Here (at last) is my entry today in the Traditional Category for the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Quild's EZ Dresden Challenge.......
I call this (in addition to the famous "State Bird Dresden") "The
Quilt of My Dreams" because I have spent many nights dreaming about starting it....finishing it.....and also because at times it has been a Nightmare!  I don't plan to make another appliqued quilt this large again..........
A United States State Bird and flower is represented on each center circle of every plate.   Since this is a 20 plate quilt I had to figure out a way to display the other 30 states so in the corner of each block is an additional circle atop a diamond set on point.  The two center blocks represent my 2 home states, New Mexico and Texas and I will also be making pillow shams which will have those two state bird/flower motifs on them.



 Here you see the Texas Bluebonnet and Mockingbird and New Mexico's Yucca Flower and Roadrunner........




.......and a couple of the corner settings.....

With all the quilting difficulties because of all that turning of this (102" x 86") quilt.....I still consider this a quilt of "love" because even though I cut some additional petals so that my plates would not have any repeats, most the plate petals were cut by my Mother, given to me by my sister, and the quilt is to be for my son.  So I definitely love this quilt............and I think my son will too........oh.........and I have a great "inspector" who loves it too.....



 I hope you will go check out all the other lovely entries in the challenge...........just click on the banner below to go there!


Aha.........you thought I was going to forget to tell you about the tomatoes, didn't you???   This morning after waking up thinking about the State Bird Quilt, I went outside this morning to listen to the rain and looked out at my tomato plants which were all sporting green tomatoes a couple of days ago and picked these!

well.......the green one had fallen so I will let it turn red in my kitchen window.......

I planted 3 tomato plants this year....1 cherry tomato plant and 2 Early Girl plants.......I have had a few cherry tomatoes previously but today was the first day I had one of the larger ones turn red!  Yummmmmmmmmm.....they made a great breakfast!


So, wow.........this is my second post two days in a row!  Better right this date down.....lol..........I'd better go and rest my fingers!
Actually now I have to go back upstairs and look at the Oz flowers and see what I'm going to come up with to show you next..........so all I have to say is "talk to you later....TaTa for now"



16 comments:

giddy99 said...

Oh, what a spectacular quilt! I love how you got all 50 State birds and flowers on it, too!

Mrs.Pickles said...

wow a beautiful quilt!! The tomatoes are pretty darn cute too :)

Rachel said...

Beautiful quilt! Love home grown tomatoes! We have 3 plants and I think we have eaten 3 tomatoes off of them, LOL..

Unknown said...

What a fun story! I hope your son loves the quilt!

Cherie said...

You could have told me it was finished =P

It looks amazing! I don't know how you managed it, but so great that you tackled it and didn't give up on it!

So what's next in your sewing pipelines? That of course isn't the wall hanging

Melody said...

Such a beautiful quilt and it's story makes it even more precious

Anonymous said...

Ida that quilt is stunning your son will love it ,well done my friend on a beautiful finish.xx

Hilachas said...

Wow! The tomatoes look tasty. Nothing like "home-grown." I love the wait the "Dresden of Your Dreams" turned out. It's really pretty how the little motifs between the plates look like there is lace surrounding them. It all looks gorgeous. I know this quilt is destined to be well-loved.

sunny said...

You are my hero! What an awesome quilt! There is no way I would give that away - even to a dearly loved son.

Needled Mom said...

It really did turn out beautifully. I know it was a real challenge for you, but well worth it in the end.

Yum!!! Nothing like fresh tomatoes from the vine.

Mary said...

What an amazing quilt! I am awestruck.

Now that we received some rain my garden has revived itself (including the weeds!). My husband planted 3 times the number of tomato plants I wanted and keeps after me to can them. I don't need them!

Anthea said...

Th quilt is s-tu-n-n-i-n-g!! It's a real piece of history, what with each US State represented in that way. Congratulation on such a fine piece of work... i hope the nightmares will now stop!

Janet said...

This is tremendous! Where did you find the birds and flowers? They look like they are cut out of fabric. I hope your son loves this quilt.

JoAnn SweetPepperRose said...

Beautiful quilt and unique idea with the state birds!
JoAnn

Kelli Fannin Quilts said...

Good luck in the contest. Your dresdens are gorgeous!! Wow, amazing. Looks like your tomatoes are doing great. :)

Kat said...

Hello my friend! I stopped by today to look for an Oz flower, but I was so happy to see this GORGEOUS dresden quilt finished. You did a spectacular job!

Your tomato pictures made me hungry... store bought are just never as good.

Have a great day!