Blue Plate Speical

Finally get to serve up my Blue Plate Special quilt!  It was inspired by the amazing Greenleaf Goods' Ode to Denyse Schmidt.  I pulled out my massive stash of China Blue fabrics for the Dresden plates and used white linen for the background to continue the fine dining theme.  The final result is much more traditional than I intended but it was a fun quilt to make.

I started this one back in 2015 during a case of the winter blues and made the bulk of the Dresden plates at the 2015 Boston MQG retreat.  A year later I finally got around to piecing the background and then it was another year before I managed to baste it during my manic quilting marathon before Laurena's Longarm was sold.  With that accomplished I quilted down the plates and was ready to start hand quilting...

I love the bold look of the big stitch quilting with 12 wt. Aurifil.  This one got dragged around a lot.  Note to my future self, white linen might not be the best choice for a quilt with hand quilting and applique.  I can't believe this isn't covered with blood stains and grime! 

At that point I thought I was done but it felt like it wasn't quilted densely enough so I went back to my machine.  It probably would have been nice to hand quilt the centers but that would have required marking and it was faster just to machine quilt them.  I stuck with the Aurifil 12 wt. (50 wt. in the bobbin) so the quilting really shows.

Sharing the love with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 72" x 96"
Pattern: Dresden plate using the Easy Dresden Ruler by EZ Quilting.  If you've never tried one check out this fabulous tutorial at Amy's Creative Side's  or Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock's Dresdens Decoded Tutorial.
Fabrics: Quilts for a Cure Fine China Blue collection by Bonnie Benn Stratton for Northcott.  Essex Linen - White.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: Aurifil in  Natural White (2021) and Midnight (2745).