Live a Colorful Life Quilt Diary: 230. Rainbow Roundabout

Dresden blocks were my choice when it was my turn to choose for the Mid Century Modern bee in 2015. This was the year when my Minnesota retreat friends had also decided to do a block exchange. There was some overlapping of members between the two groups, so I asked both groups to make Dresden blocks.

Occasionally I would put them up on the design wall and admire them. Then I realized that they would somehow have to be appliqued to a background square. So back into the drawer they went.

Again, in 2022, it was finally time to complete this quilt. I appliqued all the blocks onto the same background, a perfect fabric designed by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. And in a stroke of boldness (for me, at least), I decided to do a blanket stitch in black rather than an invisible stitch. I'm very happy with that choice.

I knew I needed a little separation between blocks so I chose a skinny black and white stripe. I thought black cornerstones would work, but because of the stripe, when the black cornerstone butted up against the black of the stripe, it just looked like I didn't know how to line things up.

Changing to a bright yellow for the cornerstone solved that problem and added a little pop.

For the backing I chose a print by Tula Pink that I had fallen in love with, some lush dripping roses.

Then it was ready for quilting.

This is definitely one of my favorite finishes of the year. I love the bright and beautiful colors, made by my friends. All the colors meld together just perfectly.