Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Dahlia Quilt

I made our children quilts when they were married as I'm sure you have or will.

My daughter told me that she'd be happy with whatever I made, the quilts would be lovely. OK, that gave me free rein. 

After my mother died, I was looking through some of her old quilting magazines (black & white newsprint!) when I ran across a photo of a Dahlia quilt. I hadn't seen any dahlia quilts for many years. There used to be several dahlia's at the relief sale every year but they aren't popular now. I showed our daughter the picture and she said she'd like one of her quilts to be a dahlia. That was 10 years ago.

She's been married 8 years now so I decided it was time to get the dahlia quilt made. I pieced the flower center at the guild retreat in February. The pieced border was pieced at the Jane Stickle retreat in April. I sewed the rest of the quilt together in May.


Those bias seams about drove me crazy! I have never been so stressed about piecing a quilt, it was puckery and wouldn't lay flat. There was no way I was going to hand quilt this thing. I had told Tammy and Allison from Three Sisters Fabric that I would be sending them a quilt for quilting so they'd be ready. I had also told them to quilt this thing into submission! They said that was the first time someone had told them that.


Tammy and Allison did a lovely job, the quilting is beautiful! But I'm never!, EVER!, EVER! going to make another dahlia quilt again! One is enough for me.




She measures 88" by 91". 


I persevered and made the flimsy. This quilt did not beat me!



Originally she was supposed to have been larger but this quilt had a mind of her own and wanted to be this size. Enough said, she's gone to her new home now and will be loved.


I almost forgot to show you the label. Normally I make a triangle and sew into a corner with the information on it. This time I used a preprint label. It doesn't really fit with this quilt but I wasn't in the mood for anything else, just get 'er done!

I forgot to take a picture of the back of the quilt. The backing fabric is wide back fabric from Connecting Threads.


To end on a cheerier note, here is a nest of young barn swallows ready to take the big step out of the nest and soar away. There are actually 5 birds in the nest. 


Linking  Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday

14 comments:

Quilting Babcia said...

The quilt is beautiful Gretchen. I guess the reason they aren't so popular anymore is because of the difficulty in putting them together. We've not had barn swallows nesting on/in our barn for a couple years now, in fact we've seen almost no swallows this year.

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

Gretchen it is beautiful! BUT I certainly understand about not making another one! I think I have had some experiences like you. So glad you continued on with the quilt and of course, I love the colors! Beautiful quilting job! Have a good day - no wonder you wanted to just only work on small quilts this summer. I now am going to do the same for the rest of the summer!!! Have a great day Hugs

Created by Kathi said...

Gretchen I just LOVE this dahlia quilt and glad it will be staying in the family.. your quilter did a GREAT job too... but your piecing had to be great for the ending to be sew awesome I think!
Good photo you got of the little swallows... enjoy your farm life friend :D Kathi

Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting said...

What a beautiful finish! You could've fooled me--it looks absolutely perfect and flat and is definitely a generous size. No surprise your daughter loves it! And those 5 big baby swallows--too cute seeing them all squished in there together!

Jayne said...

The quilt is gorgeous! I hope you can look at it without remembering all the difficulty you had making it. There are times when quilting a finish into submission is required...it's gorgeous!

Elizabeth V Kelbaugh said...

It is gorgeous! We should not focus on the problems but be proud of the lovely finish.

For the love of geese said...

Beautiful finish.

Melanie said...

It is a beautiful quilt! I always admire Dahlia quilts but I am afraid of curves. I guess counting your experience in, I will not make one - good thing I can still admire them on blogland/IG :) Hope it will be loved lots! And enjoy your finish xo Melanie

www.mellmeyer.de

chrisknits said...

What a wonderful quilt, you will be glad you just got it done. And now, no more Dahlia's for you! I hear you on the bias issues, shudder. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

loraine everard said...

That dahlia quilt is beautiful!!! I have always fancied making one, but after your comments, I think I changed my mind !! Love visiting your blog, Gretchen ! x

Quilter Kathy said...

This does look like a challenging pattern!
Great job and A++ for perseverance!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! It’s a wonder that this quilt design has fallen out of favor. I know your daughter was thrilled!

K Reeves said...

Gretchen, that quilt is just beautiful, I'm so glad you persevered and kept at it, the finished quilt is a wow!

Melva said...

Beautiful quilt! Thanks for linking up. I have similar feelings on the Broken Star Quilt. :)