Island Batik Dresden Plate Blog Hop

This month for the Island Batik challenge we are doing another blog hop! So be sure to click the image below to join in and possibly win something.

The gorgeous collection I got to use this month is the Tropical Bliss:

The collection is full of yellow, pink/purple, teals and greens. It's a tropical collection that reminds me of the Hawaiian islands and the ocean floor. I was in love with the turtle prints and the teal and greens. The collection is vibrant and beautiful.

Thank you to Oliso for this work horse of an Iron! I was the best thing for this massive project.

For my Dresden plate design I really wanted to work with diamonds, diamond shapes, or add a diamond into the over all design somewhere. When I started messing around with the design, I came up with a Dresden plate/fan inside a diamond and connecting them all together with a diamond 4 patch. It definitely was more complicated than it should have been but I mean, its me, I make everything more detailed and over the top every time.

This was the first block I designed for the quilt, but I wanted to add some variation so I could show off the larger prints as well.

I then designed the half Dresden fan block. This one I could start to show off a lot more of the fabric, but I still wanted more variation, as the human brain looks for patterns when the blocks are even numbers. I wanted the quilt to feel a lot more random, so I wanted to add a 3rd block in to the quilt.

Lastly, I designed the diamond four patch block. This block allowed me to show off a lot more of the gorgeous fabric and the brilliant designs in the fabric collection. I was feeling a lot more satisfied with these designs, and now I could definitely make a random style quilt.

I was finally ready to start putting this quilt top together. For the background I used the Champagne from the Natural Neutrals collection. This soft yellow batik helped bring the entire quilt together and kept the quilt warm feeling.

For the batting I used the Hobbs Supreme 100% unbleached cotton. This tuscany collection is a soft light batting that I absolutely love to use. Its so light but still keeps you warm and is easy to cuddle with.

For the back of the quilt I used the fern in the turquise and then added smaller squares and rectangles of all the prints around that. This took. a little while as I was using all the scraps from the off cuts of the blocks. I just made one really long strip and then sewed it on, one side at a time, trimmed and then did the same thing all around. I then cut huge 10 inch squares of each fabric from the collection and then added those around the smaller squares. The back turned out wonderful. I could have even done this as the front and just added appliquéd Dresden plates on to it. So, maybe I'll do that for the next quilt.

Once I had the front and back together, I sandwhiched the quilt. I was lucky enough to have two out of my three helpers in my room. (More like speed bumps, if you ask me, but shhhh don't tell them okay.)

They keep me company when everyone else has gone to bed, and they also keep the house warm. Its finally winter here in the UK and our boiler has been out for over a week now. Just yesterday they came out to FINALLY fix it. I took a hot shower for the first time in weeks. Let me tell you, when you are sick and you just want HOT water, its so frustrating to only get warm or luke warm water (thanks to our emersion heater).

Back to the quilt.

I started out by adding some little tiny Dresden fans to some of the blocks, which I free motion quilted on. This was just a simple quick add on but I was really enjoying the addition once I got going making them and then placing them on the quilt top. Getting this massive quilt quilted was no easy feat.

I used my Aurifil 2105, which is a soft buttery yellow. This matched the quilt perfectly. I love how it blends in on some areas but stands out on others. I did a lot of loops, flowers, feathers, and Dresden inspired motifs in the quilting.

Once it was all quilted up, I then trimmed it to a rectangular shape. Which honestly working with a lot of bias angles in this quilt, I was expecting it to lean to one side, or be pretty wonky, but shockingly it stayed pretty straight. That was an unexpected joy.

This quilt was finished off with the white and yellow tossed leaves print which I used along with the fern in tourquise as the small thin boarder around each diamond block. I feel like it really brought the entire quilt together in the end.

Finally I could take some photos of this quilt. Well, I wanted too. However, the last few days have been nothing but sick kids, sick husband, as well as rain and cold. I too caught the yuck that my entire house had. So, I did an indoors photo shoot. Its not great but maybe I will be able to grab some better photos later on.

For now, I hope you all enjoy these few photos.

Thank you again to Island Batik, Oliso, Hobbs and Aurifil.

Diamond four patch block, with the mini Dresden plates at the bottom.

The Dresden Fan block with the Dresden fan inspired quilted motifs.

The full Dresden Diamond block.

This is the top before it was quilted. You can kind of get a better view of the vibrant fabrics and colors.

This is the finished back of the quilt. Again you can really see the vibrant and beautiful colors and prints.

The top. Its just so beautiful. I am absolutely over the moon about this one.

Thank you for taking a moment to read all about this Dresden quilt and check out all beautiful Tropical Bliss Island Batik fabric collection. Be sure to join the blog hop and hopefully win a bundle of fabric.

Follow along and be sure to check out all the other blog hops:

Alburl, Brenda: https://songbirddesigns.blog/

Atkinson, Renee: https://pinktulipquilting.wordpress.com

Best, Megan: www.bestquilter.com

Boatright, Pamela: www.Pamelaquilts.com

Deshensky, Susan: www.ladybluequilts.com

Fisher, Brittany: https://bobbinwithbrittany.com

Harris, Preeti: https://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com/

Hatziioannidi, Mania: www.maniaforquilts.com

Hauprich, Jane: www.stitchbystitchcustomquilting.com

Jamieson-Hirst, Kim: https://www.chatterboxquilts.com/

Johnson, Victoria: https://foreverquilting4you.wordpress.com