True Colors Modern Dresden Circle Quilt

Today is my day to share as part of the True Colors by Free Spirit blog tour. This past fall Free Spirit fabric company debuted the True Colors collections - a collection of fabric blenders by four of their popular designers: Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner, and Jenean Morrison.

Creative Bug made a beautiful video with the individual designers talking about their inspiration and motivation to create their True Colors collections.

I was given the opportunity to play with this pretty True Colors bundle by Jenean Morrison.

I also mixed in some of the blender prints from Jenean's latest collection for Free Spirit: Wishing Well.

Here are is the full collection from Wishing Well. A really sweet bundle of prints and colors.

And this is the project I created with Jenean's fabrics - a modern dresden circle quilt. I was inspired as I laid out the fat quarters in color order and knew I wanted something using that spectrum. I've always loved Purl Soho's Color Wheel Quilt and thought this would be the perfect way to create something inspired by that quilt.

My circles measure about 18" in diameter (across). I created them using a traditional Dresden wedge ruler. (Mine is a EZ Quilting Easy Dresden Ruler. I've lost track of how often I use this ruler.) For each Dresden (or circle) block I cut 20 different wedges that were 6" long, but instead of beginning my measurement from the bottom of the ruler, I started it at the 2" line and finished at the 8" line so that I'd get a wider wedge. (I've written another Dresden circle tutorial here if you would like to see how to assemble the 20 wedges.)

When each circle was completed I appliqued the block to a 22" square of white fabric, then quilted the block with a piece of batting. I decided to applique and quilt each block separately to make the quilting a little bit easier, but you could applique all four blocks onto a 42" x 42" square of fabric as well.

Coats and Clark provided me with thread for this project. The thread worked really well for both piecing and quilting.

After the blocks were quilted, I sewed the four blocks together, pressing seams open to help the bulk of the batting lie as flat as possible. Then basted the front piece to the backing and quilted a little bit more to hold the back layer together. I used more of Jenean's Wishing Well for my backing and binding fabrics.

This was such a simple project, but I love the visual impact. I'm such a sucker for simple, primary colors - especially when they're in color spectrum order. I'm hanging this quilt in my new sewing space.
If you want more inspiration using the Free Spirit True Colors collections, visit these other stops on the blog tour. (You can even enter to win some of that fabric!)
1/20 Sew4Home
1/21 Stitchery Dickory Dock
1/22 I’m A Ginger Monkey
1/23 The Sewing Loft
1/24 Ellison Lane
1/27 Dairy of A Quilter (moi)
1/28 Material Obsession
1/29 Craftsanity
1/30 Stitched in Color
1/31 Craft Buds
2/3 Jay Bird Quilts
2/4 Melissa Peda

Speaking of entering to win, I have a fat quarter bundle of Jenean's True Colors to giveaway as well as a jelly roll and two charm packs to two more lucky winners. If you'd like the chance to enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what colors you'd choose if you had to pick your "True Colors." Giveaway open until Saturday, Feb 1 at midnight MST. GIVEAWAY CLOSED. (Please be sure there is a way I can contact you if you are randomly selected!)

Winners:
Darcy said...
Amy this is absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for sharing such a lovely giveaway and project :-) My one true color is always green but I'm also a complete sucker for a good fabric rainbow. Lynn said...
I have said before I am loving using the spectrum of colors right now but my true colors are aqua and green together! Catskill Quilter said... My true colors are aqua and orange - love the way they play together! (Thanks for the info on using the Dresden ruler; I am going to try it this week!)