The Generations Quilt: September 2026 Project Meeting
Hello Friends and Welcome!
Over the last few weeks, I've begun assembling the first of the Generations Quilt tops!
It's been so exciting to finally take the blocks we've been working so hard to make over the past few years and put them together into a more unified whole!
And, of course, I wanted to make sure Mom and Grandma could share in that excitement as well, so I brought the top-in-progress with me when we all got together for a visit last week!
After taking a look at the quilt together, we've decided what direction we want it to take and I can't wait to share our plans!
Let's take a look!
Preparing the Quilt Top
At our last project meeting, we tried out a few different block layouts for the Dresden Plates.
We parted ways without making a final decision so each of us could sit with our thoughts and consider which layout we liked best, then finalized our choice by email.
We ultimately decided on this checkerboard layout for the first quilt, which featured the darkest background colours of all my Dresden Plate blocks!
Since there's no way to blend such dark colours with the white backgrounds used by everyone else, the checkerboard design embraced the contrast and made the whole design feel more intentional!
After making that decision, the Generations Quilt blocks were packed away for a few months while I was moving.
Once I'd gotten more settled into the new house, Mom and I started looking for materials for the edge triangles and backing of the quilt, which we were fortunate enough to find on sale!
With all the materials gathered, I was finally able to start piecing the quilt top!
Piecing the Pieces
With the layout planned in advance, I started working on assembling the first few rows of the quilt top!
I managed to stitch together two of the en pointe rows on my own, which came out to roughly a third of the finished quilt top, before I needed to get back to working on renovations.
That pieced section and all the remaining blocks came with me when I got together with Mom and Grandma so I could show off my progress!
During the visit, I was able to continue working on the quilt top and ended up completing it!
Or at least, I stitched all the blocks together!
As I'd been working on the quilt top, I wondered if the edge triangles felt a little empty.
I asked Mom and Grandma for their thoughts on the empty spaces, offering two possibilities for how we could fill them:
The first option was to fill the space with quilting, using that to create the ghost of a Dresden Plate in reference to the applique shapes in the quilt centre. The other option was to piece more applique shapes to fill the spaces with fabric.
I think either way would create a lovely effect, and we may end up using a mix of those methods across the full set of family quilts, but for this one, we chose to add more pieced applique!
With that decision made, we also discussed our opinions on boarders.
We all agreed that the quilt doesn't need a wide accent border, but Mom and Grandma were concerned about the longevity of the additional applique shapes we'll be adding to the edges.
The edges of a quilt are typically handled more than the centre, receiving more strain and wear, so we may add a narrow border to reinforce it or we may decide binding alone is enough.
In the end, I don't believe we reached a decision in this regard, so we'll have to meet with them again once I've finished with the additional applique!
With the next few steps of the Generations Quilt project laid out, I'm excited to continue stitching!
It's been so nice to catch up with Mom and Grandma to ensure we're all still happy with how this quilt is coming together, and I can't wait to hear what all of you think about it as well!
Please share your thoughts on our progress by leaving me a comment below or by sending me an email! And if you'd like to see some updates on my ongoing projects between blog posts, visit me on Instagram!
In the meantime, I think I'll do a little more stitching!
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