Dresden Wonky Neighborhood at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

A few meetings ago at Guild I showed something I had made using neckties…I don’t even remember which piece it was.  Well, one of our program directors, showed a Dresden Wonky Neighborhood and asked for submissions for the show.  I really didn’t think much about it, but she looked at me and said “you could even make it using neckties”.  I kind of thought of it as a challenge.

The piece was due at the February meeting so, truly, I had plenty of time to complete one block.  I went online and purchased the pattern.  If you are interested in making a neighborhood of your own you will find the pattern here:  https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/dresden-neighborhood-block-tutorial/197578.  The designer is Kim Lapacek of Persimon Dreams, and she even has a Dresden Wonky Neighborhood Sew A Long.

I went through my ties, sort of found a theme, and then cut out, stabilized the pieces and put them together.

Then I talked with my Beloved.   One of the things that had to be done before creating the piece was to write an artist’s statement about what you were doing and the inspiration.  For me it is better if I do this after the piece is completed, but I did comply.  The name of my piece is “Corporate Cog”.

I could have gone on and on about Home Owner Associations, an era of cars being grey, silver, black or white, traffic going into the city and returning to the suburbs. I could have waxed poetic.  But truth be told, cogs get the work done.

Looking at what I had started with, my Beloved mentioned that I could make the neighborhood look “standardized”, like a cog.  I thought like a neighborhood in an HOA too!  So I scrapped my first  effort.

 

When I laid the block down on the grey background it look sad and lost.  There was an enormous amount of negative space. Being more of a piecer than a quilter I knew I had to fill that space up.  The negative space was dull!

My quilting would be really noticeable!  Generally, I quilt by check, but on some of these smaller pieces I have made a real effort to quilt myself, but I haven’t mastered that part of the process yet, so I need a distraction!  What to do what to do…

There was a solution, but it meant cutting more ties and hoping I had enough Heat N Bond to go around.  As it happened, I had just enough for the cogs on the front and one to go on the label on the back.

Whew!

 

So I auditioned my cogs..

 

Adhered them to the surface so they connected and worked, and did my quilting.

One thing I did learn..

Be very careful what you use to mark your quilting lines.  If you have never used a product, test it on a sample of what you are going to use it on.  I used this with the yellow to mark my quilting lines.  Generally, I use painters tape, I was in a hurry, the deadline was near.  The markings were very stubborn, and did not want to come out.  I tried several different things to remove them, finally Magic Eraser got the lines out.  Again, if you have never used a product test it first.

Just making my deadline, I put on my label and handed the piece in.  I was and am satisfied with the end product.  In fact it has inspired me to take on an even bigger project.  More on that later…much later.

Other fabulous Neighborhoods from the Challenge:

This one was made with wool!

The house that Kaffe built.

Cat House (no really)!

The checkered background and the dots are fabulous!

I would strongly encourage you to participate in those challenges that come your way.  Take part in those quilt shows, read a new blog, try something different.

Until next time…

Piece!