introducing.... Ties That Bind, a unique Dresden plate quilt

You guys!

I am so pleased to introduce to you,

officially,

in its entirety,

my made with 150ish hours of love

(and a little blood, a lot of sweat, and even a few tears)

Ties That Bind

a black and white quilt for my awesome baby brother, Matt,

and his beautiful (inside and out!) bride, Marin.

After Marin showed off her gorgeous engagement ring at Thanksgiving festivities last year,

she said,

"So - I guess we need to order a quilt now :-) "

We talked a little bit about what she wanted 

- namely a bunch of black and white print fabrics.

No other colors.

(I am just a little bit of a rebel, 

so I defied her wishes and added a tiny bit of red stitching to the label ;-)
(She didn't mind)

We decided (I decided) that instead of them hiring me to make it,
the quilt would be their wedding gift.

She wanted to leave the design totally up to me,

and reminded me
that while she normally doesn't like quilts, she's loved every one of mine...

(like this one, this one, my hubby's, this one - which is for sale, and even this manly quilt.)

After several hours of searching pinterest and googling  'black and white quilt' for inspiration,

but not finding anything that seemed remotely right,

I remembered this dresden quilt,

a knew it would be perfect!

Using my handy dandy graph paper and a sharpened pencil,

I designed a quilt with 11 (mostly double pointed) dresden plates,

some whole, some partial,

ranging in size from to 15" - 33" in diameter.

My brother and his lovely wife are both so special and unique
 and I wanted the quilt to reflect that
so I planned for all of the dresdens to be different sizes,
both inner and outer circumferences.
(then I had to spend a good bit of time figuring out what size to cut my blades so I'd get those sizes!)
The insides of the dresdens were all quilted differently, as well.

I spent about a month buying fabrics,

some basic B&Ws that I thought played well together,

and some that were especially suited to Matt and Marin, 

based on their hobbies and professions.

I cut into my 38 fabrics on Jan 12th,

and started making Dresdens.

When I had those all sewn onto their background fabrics

and into a quilt top, 

I decide it wasn't really complete

and made more whole and partial plates

until I was happy with the overall composition.

Then I pieced a back with leftover fabrics

and made a label.

(stupidly forgetting to add both the name of the quilt, and my name. sheesh)

Their wedding date was pieced using kona white, a black dot fabric,

 and a pricey calendar fabric I purchased from Mary's shop,

because I totally fell in love with the idea after seeing it.

At Mary (the big-stitch hand quilting master!)'s suggestion, I used wool batting
(which is just lovely and I will definitely be using it again)

and Tyler helped me baste it in late February

and I spent the next 7 weeks quilting,

both by machine and by hand,
going around and around and around.
(and through...)

I don't know if you know this,
but a dresden plate has 20 blades
(well, normally - some of mine don't (?)
which means, for each time around a plate,
the quilt must be turned forty times.

Forty dang times!

I used about 1 1/4 balls of size 8 perle cotton and 2 needles for the hand-quilting.

My favorite needle for hand quilting remains a size 8 straw needle from foxglove cottage.

I've tried various needles, recommended by various quilters far more experienced than myself,

but I always return (very quickly!) to my beloved milliners.

I can only conclude that those women have not yet tried my favorite ;-)

and have decided to not spend any more money trying other needles.

I finished sewing the binding (by hand) (with a size 10 milliner ;-) on April 19th,

13 weeks and 6 days after I cut into my stack of black and white fabrics.

~

Matt and Marin,

Congratulations!

I hope you love your quilt and use it.
And I hope every time you use it, or even just see it, you feel treasured :-)

We love you both ever so much!!

If you are here from the quilt festival, 

welcome!
Thanks for stopping by;

I hope you enjoyed your visit - feel free to poke around a bit :-)

If you're a regular visitor ~ thanks for cheering me on
on this quilt journey!
(and patiently indulging me as I carry on ;-)

Your kind words and 'atta girls' bring a smile to my face ~ thank-you!

(and of course, thanks to my guys for helping me photograph this beast :-)

I'm entering this queen sized quilt in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival in the large quilt category
and linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, even though it is no longer a work in progress :-)
and fabric designer AmandaJean's Finish it Fridays