Red and White Dresdens are stitched

My favorite WIP, the Red and White pieced Dresdens, are all stitched down onto their backgrounds.  

Trying to get a good photo was tricky. And yes, I probably should have ironed them first!

This is a better shot as the true colour comes through, but I couldn't fit all the blocks in the lens!

Still you get the idea.  I cannot made up my mind about the colour for the centres.  I thought the choice would be between white/cream print or red print.

But it turned out that the 2.5" strips were not wide enough to make a centre from, so I couldn't use the left over light strips from my dresden's.  Instead I tried some French General reds.

The red print is a bit distracting, but I like the size better then the plain red.

You can see the size difference here.  I am not going to have enough of this solid red - I cut into a layer cake square to get it.  So I am either going shopping or finding another suitable fabric, perhaps a red with a very small print out of the same layer cake.

Happy quilting Sue.

Leaders and Enders dilemma

A lady I know is moving house and while they are not downsizing, there will be less room in the new place.  The end result is that I have been a very happy receiver of goodies from her quilting room.  I was very happy to give these two books a new home.  

There are the cutest quilts in the Civil War Legacies by Carol Hopkins.  The Civil War sampler has some lovely blocks, but is also a very interesting read.

SCORE!  I didnt own any of Bonnie Hunters books, but now I do!  I learned all about Leaders and enders from following Bonnie, so it was great to have the patterns.  I am now trying to decide which pattern to choose as my new leader and ender for 2016. 

I love a good nine patch and Sisters Nine Patch ticks all the boxes!  How can you not love all those delicious red and white nine patches!  And I have loads of red and white stripes left over from my dresden plate quilt.

Then again Blue Ridge Beauty - a blue and white four patch combined with half square triangles is also tempting! 

OR perhaps I should throw caution to the wind and move away from controlled palettes and make this sweet quilt called Crab Apples, using all my 1 1/2" squares...I am sure I don't have 854 one and half inch squares, but then I have never counted them!

Ah decisions, decisions!  

Happy quilting Sue.