Applique Borders
 

I am in the process of piecing my dresden plate quilt. I used 30's repro fabric and made 20 dresdens. Each dresden is sewn to a 13" white block. I added a 2-1/2" yellow sashing around each white block. My final border will be a 5-1/2" of the solid white border.

I envision doing a needle turned appliqué around the white border. My question to you ladies who do needle turn appliqué, can you recommend a good appliqué book for me to purchase with flowers with vines and leaves? I am going to take an appliqué class at my local quilt shop in August and really think the appliqué border will make my quilt outstanding.

Are you looking for instructions or patterns? Because if you're looking for patterns, there is plenty available on the internet for free.

https://www.google.com/search?q=free...w=1366&bih=665

If you want a book, look on the internet and see if you can get a copy of Jeana Kimball's book...Applique Borders: An Added Grace...full of beautiful appliqued borders.

I just bought this book at half.com. Thanks for the recommendation!

I would put applique on the border before joining onto main quilt. This is not usually stated but I prefer to have a small amount of fabric on my knee. You can mark and leave a small section at the corners to use when joining.
I do most of my applique on small sections and sandwich and quilt in these small sections before joining together.

Carol Armstrong has a number of wonderful applique books on the market- I think I own 4 or 5 of them- I love her work! there are flowers, vines, birds, cats & dogs...lots to choose from in different books- I always turn to one of her books when I need some inspiration for a project. I seem to applique a lot of borders lately- I generally do the bulk of the applique before adding the border to the quilt (much less to manipulate/deal with) then I add the borders and continue the appliques around the corners. it is much easier to just have to work on a corner than a whole border attached to a quilt.

Thanks for all the replies. I am looking forward to learning this technique and hopefully making this labor intensive quilt a show winner!