If you haven't heard (or read) the story.... I purchased the antique rings in 1999. I then hand appliqued them with a needle turn technique to some muslin. (this process took me a little over a year of on again, off again handwork.)
Then I needed a setting for 11 blocks. A weird number..... but I did not want to make a 12th block.
The setting I used was in an old quilt magazine, (can't remember the name, or the date) from the mid to late 80's. I photocopied the pages I would need, and purchased the blue fabric. The original pattern had 4 dresden plates in the four corners, and then a scalloped border on four sides to make it a double size. I had orignally planned on just using the solid blue for the corners, and leaving the scallops off, to make a twin size quilt.
As I got around to piecing the top together 3 years ago.... I miscut the corners, (imagine that after 10 years, I had misplaced some of the pages). And to make matters worse, I did not have enough fabric to fix the situation. I chose the scrappy block for the corners, and made 4 of them using my reproduction 30's. (I felt that new dresden plates would look too new).
The new corners I made with those blocks, were also not the right size, and I had a top that would not lay flat.
Fast forward to now, and by adding a "coping strip" to the corners, I was able to get the top to lay nice and flat.
Since I really wanted this quilt to have a vintage feeling to it, I decided to quilt it with a grid. This will be a quilt that will stay in my personal quilt collection. I don't have plans to give it to anyone anytime soon.
