my Wicked Funky Dresden

Last Friday morning I woke up with a quilt design dancing around in my head. This doesn't happen to me often, but every now & then things come to me in my sleep! Often I roll over and ignore them and then they are gone forever. This time, I dashed to my studio for graph paper and pencils and got it drawn out before it got away. Boy am I glad I did!

By the end of the weekend, my drawing was sewn into what I lovingly referred to as my "funky dresden".  Once it was all assembled, I was perplexed as to what I should put in the center. My first instinct was a split circle, to make it look like the background was coming through. But then I began to consider other options. I took to Instagram to see what others thought...

My original idea is top right. And many liked that too! The green dot, top left, got lots of votes from more traditional folks who wanted a place for the eye to rest. And the split square on the bottom? Also popular, mostly with those who wanted a bit of the unexpected. In the end, the votes were split almost perfectly in thirds! Well, that was helpful!

In the end, after examining the options for a day or so, I decided to go with the square.

Jennifer, who is tenseturtle861 on Instagram, suggested I name it "Wicked Dresden" based on the color scheme which reminded her of Wicked, the musical.  Brilliant! So this particular one is named Wicked Funky Dresden, but the pattern overall is just Funky Dresden. Thanks Jennifer!

By Sunday evening, I was stitching down the binding on my finished quilt (maybe my fastest ever quilt finish)

My background colors are charcoal gray and white, with the lime green pop of color. Finished quilt is 30 inches square and the very feeble quilting was done on my domestic machine, just radiating lines which s fine, I guess. I'd really like to try a spiral on my next one, but I've never done that before & frankly it scares me. We'll see.

I also did matched binding so as not to take away from the simplicity of the quilt.

So there you have it. There has been interest in a tutorial. Naturally I was in such a hurry to get this done I didn't take any pictures of the process. So, I will work on a tutorial, but I'm going to need a few days. Meanwhile, if you're anxious to jump in and make one too, here's what you will need:

1 yard dark background

1 yard light background

1/2 yard contrast

18 degree dresden ruler - mine is creative grids. This will give you a 20 section circle. If you have a different size, that's ok, you just might need more or fewer wedges for your quilt

batting & backing bigger than 30" square.

 I can't wait to see what others come up with!