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Old 11-16-2014, 05:49 AM
  #4  
RugosaB
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Ohio, just east of Toledo
Posts: 1,369
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My suggestion is to finish with the method that will result in the best construction.

30 years ago my husband's grandmother died, and left a quilt's worth of Maple leaf blocks. She had cut the sashing and even had a graph paper with her design, showing she meant for them to be set on point. She had them packed away in such a way that made us think they were from the 40's or 50's.

All I had to buy was the batting and an outside border fabric.
All the blocks were already hand stiched, and I machine pieced it together according to her design.

I decided on hand quilting it, using Perle cotton in colors that coorcinated with each color of leaf. I found a mewthd online called 'Big Stitch'

I did not feel bad in the least using my machine, I considered it more of a way to respect her handstitching, knowing I could not do as well as she did.

All her blocks were uniform in size but I think to enlarge a Dresdan, I'd probably unstitch it a little, and add just enough background fabric to attach a sashing. I'd stitch the dresdan back on (this is one area I'd hand stitch), and let it be a detail of the quilt that 'tells a story.'
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