Black Dahlia Holiday Quilt

I wasn't sure which way to word the title of this blog, It's a black quilt with a holiday dahlia -- not a black dahlia!  Anyway, this was a "practice" quilt for me.  I've never done a giant dahlia pattern, ribbon border, or a black quilt.  I wanted to make something pretty for the holidays, just in case it turned out ok!

The dahlia pattern was a bit of a challenge, once I got the hang of it, it was much easier.  There is a way to make a secondary pattern so that you see  the "petals" that I want to try next time -- hint:  light, medium, dark one direction, single colors the other direction.  Can you figure it out?

The ribbon border was fun and easy, and sewing with black thread on black fabric wasn't as hard to see as I feared!  The detail is hard to see here, but I did circles on either side of the ribbon, then straight lines 1/4" apart in the rest of the border.  The lighter black towards the center has a meandering feather pattern in it, and for the dahlia, each colored row was sewn in a long feather.

This photo of the back of the quilt shows the design, if you can see it!  Long feathers radiating from the center, feather fill background, straight lines and circles in the outer border, and cross hatching in the green part of the ribbon.  I also changed the center to a black circle, quilted in a feather wreath pattern.

This quilt was entirely made of scraps I've had for several years, except for the outer black border, it was a great way to make something pretty from holiday fabrics.  The thread was Essential Pro from Connecting Threads.  It's a 70 weight poly thread, and really made a difference in the quilt, you see the quilting, not the thread.

I was pleased with the result, for a practice quilt it looks pretty good (there are some boo-boos, so don't look too closely).  I'll definitely use it over the holidays.

Have you made a giant dahlia quilt, or a black quilt?  How did yours come out?

Mary