Blueberry Fans Quilt

I've been dreaming about Dresdens for a while now. I've been looking them up on Pinterest, searching hashtags on Instagram. When I feel inspired to try something new, I usually mull over it for a few months, seeing if something captures my attention. I wait for an idea to jump into my head, then I start cutting.
With this quilt, however, I felt like I was 'cutting blind'. There are lots of Dresden quilts out there. But none that I could find that made me go, "Yes!" Many were made with 1930s fabrics, which I can admire, but aren't really me. There were Dresdens with borders, with white centres, with extra rounds. Extra large Dresdens, extra small ones, and even cat Dresdens. Maybe I just needed to dive in with my favourite prints, and see where it led?

Then Karen Lewis announced her debut line, "Blueberry Park" with Robert Kaufman, and I knew I had the perfect match. They were the perfect mix of basics, happy and not too busy, so that my blades could be colourful, and distinct from the one next to them. I emailed Karen and asked her if she'd send me some prints and she agreed! When she sent me a 5" charm pack of all 75 prints, I remembered that in my search, I'd come across a tutorial for cutting Dresden blades from charm squares. I can't recommend this method enough! It's a great way to use almost an entire 5" square. I quickly hopped online and bought a Dresden ruler.

I decided to make quarter circles first, just to play with the design before I sewed them into circles, and I'm so glad I did. It gave me room to play with different colour backgrounds for each fan, rather than in big blocks behind a whole circle. I like that it makes it feel a little more 'flitty'. It's happy, optimistic, joyful. Like butterflies but not too much.

For the black circles, I found a soup mug in my cupboard that made them to exactly the right size including a 1/4" seam allowance. After I had appliqued all the fans onto background squares, I made up a bunch of black 1/4 circles, and a template out of heavy card, to press the edges over. I've long been a fan of Roxanne's glue baste. But living an hour away from a quilt shop had me making do when I ran out. Glue stick worked a charm! And I'm using it for everything these days!

It sat on my design wall for about a week while I decided how to quilt it. Putting the final blocks together is always my sticking point. But as soon as I've decided on the backing (Mobius Stip by Jeni Baker) and quilting, I get a burst of energy again, and hook in till the finish. I went with close, straight lines. I had all kinds of ideas about making the fans jump out, but my quilting just isn't up to it. This made sure everything was stuck down tight, and gave me a more controlled 'crinkle' after washing. It was the perfect choice, I think. Do you? I actually like that the fans are flatter rather than puffy.

Last week I made the exciting discovery of an old truck and other random farm debris in the neighbouring paddock. So with the changing of the clocks this week to Daylight Saving, we all took a stroll after dinner for photos and climbing while the sun went down. I so, so wanted to finish this before the bright yellow canola faded, but I was too slow. Thankfully there's always next year!