I have been working diligently the last 3 days on my Sew Intertwined Quilt as part of A Lovely Year of Finishes – it is my goal for March. I have so far finished the center Dresden and I have been working on the middle section of the quilt – I couldn’t do the outside section if I wanted to because…I have no idea how I am going to quilt it yet! I thought I would show you all how I quilted my Dresden, this is by no means the only way, just how I do it.

Here is what my Dresden looks like from the front – you probably can’t tell in this picture but the center I did some pebbling on – the first time I  have done that in a quilt.

I am using the same color for the bobbin that I am for the front. I wanted my quilting to echo the Dresden without actually sewing on the Dresden. I anchored that with my pebbles in the center.

As you can see my echo stitching is fairly even and my points are centered. Here is how I manage that. First I have a 1/4″ walking foot – it is not a must have but it is helpful. If you have a standard quilting foot with a guide, you can also use that to help you achieve the even look that I have here.

You are going to start with a quilting ruler and a removable marker – I used a water soluble pencil by Clover – these remind me of the grease pencils I used to use in the dark room – they are super easy to remove when you are done with your quilting.

Next you will want to extend the lines of the points and the valleys of your Dresden Fans. As you can see in the picture the ruler is lined up to extend the point on the green fan.

You will start your first round of quilting with your foot lined up on the edge of the Dresden, as you reach one of your lines, make sure your needle is in the DOWN position, lift your foot and pivot on the line. Readjust to line up with the edge of the Dresden and quilt to the next drawn line.

As you can see from the pictures above the overall effect is worth all the work. It almost looks like a sunburst from the back. This is also how I achieved the look in the Dresden pillow I made back made in January and blogged about in February.

One last trick about how I quilt. When I am using multiple colored threads I pre-wind all my bobbins and store the thread with bobbin on top underneath my quilting table so that each one is ready and available when I am ready to quilt. It keeps me from having to slow down and search for a bobbin or wind one!

So that’s what I’ve been up to, plugging away on my finish for March. What have you all been up to?