Small Dresden Plate Quilts

I set out to use up scraps of vintage fabrics saved from a large box of vintage fabrics belonging to my maternal grandmother. My goal was to complete some small, keepsake quilts by this weekend to offer my sister first pick when she comes to visit this weekend.

Since I kept very few of the vintage fabric scraps, nor were the pieces very large, I decided that a 9" Dresden plate was as big as I could go. Using EQ8, I chose a 12-petal Dresden in the block library, made it 9" X 9" and printed it as "template" onto card stock. I cut out the card stock petal and used it as a rotary cutting guide to cut 72 petals. Though I made only four small quilts, I have enough petals cut for two more. I used the circle template to cut Dresden plate centers from a few solid colors of vintage fabric.

After piecing together the 12 petals, I sewed a quarter-inch seam around the outside of each petal to join lightweight fusible interfacing to the front of the plate. Then I cut notches along the curve of each petal, slit an opening in the fusible, and turned the whole thing right side out for a nice edge finish that was easy to press and fuse to background fabric. I used invisible thread and a tiny zig-zag to stitch the plate to the background.

I tried to make the machine quilting as simple as possible, using a neutral-colored thread to walking-foot quilt along each petal. Then, with a thread color to match the background, I used my Bernina ruler work foot (#72) and an echo guild to free motion quilt around each Dresden plate. In this picture, I'm using the .75" echo guide.

I used the 1" echo guide on the outermost passes. 

All the backings were pieced with vintage scraps. Background solids and bindings are the only fabrics that came from my stash.

I made four 12-1/2" X 12-1/2" quilts.  

 Each quilt has this label.

After my sister selects hers, the remaining quilts will be mailed to other female relatives. And of course, if needed, I have enough Dresden plate petals to make two more. 

Monica @buttoncounter who receive the bulk of Grandma's vintage fabrics, sent me a lovely thank-you note and parcel containing a ceramic coffee mug, two quilt patterns, and this 9" X 12" hand-quilted cutie. Monica was much too generous.  

But her quilt does look good on the sewing room wall between my TV and design wall! 

I'm still listening to books while I sew and quilt.

 "Down River" by John Hart is the 17th book I've listened to this year. He's a new author to me; his writing style has been likened to John Grisham. The characters and story are written from a male perspective with plenty of tension between the main character, Adam Chase, and his father - the who-done-it murder plot kept me guessing.

I enjoyed it, but I doubt I'll read another by this author. For many years I've been aware that I prefer female authors. This book has reminded me of that. Linda's Score: 3.7/5

Linda