Have you made Dresden Plates?

I have recently become enamored with the Dresden Plate design and decided that it would be a perfect pattern for my guild challenge (due this Tuesday)!!

I had never made Dresden Plates before so decided to make a video to help myself learn as well as teach those who are interested.

They are amazingly easy to make so please enjoy……

If you are reading this via email, follow this link to see the YouTube Video....  https://youtu.be/E6sif4NZcU

After making a few larger Dresden Plate Designs, I pulled out some rulers that I had purchased when I was in Sweden……

The first was the MINI Dresden Plate from SuzN Quilts…..

…..and the second was the TINY Dresden…..

The MINI Version can be purchased HERE

The TINY Version can be purchased HERE

These templates are 30-degree angles, so it only takes 12 spokes to make a full plate.

For the Mini plates, I started with a 3-inch strip……

….while the TINY version started with a 2-inch strip…..

At this point, I was working with some fairly small pieces…..

The TINY template produced a 3-1/4 inch plate…..

But, then I got REALLY crazy and cut them even smaller, cutting the initial strip at 1.5-inches and only using a portion of the TINY template…..

At this stage, I found it too hard to hold the ruler in place, so I drew in the cutting lines and then cut them separately.

Interestingly, as I stitched it together, I only ended up needing 8 of the wedges to complete the plate…..

This one ended up being 1-3/4’s inch in size!!

So small but WAY TOO CUTE!!

Tomorrow I will show you some of the other alterations that I made as I proceeded to piece my Dresden-Plate flower garden!!

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Now let’s make SMALLER Dresden Plates….

Yesterday I told you about a new quilt that I have started focusing on the Dresden plate block.

This 9-inch variety was fast and easy…..my two favorite words…..

BUT, could I make them smaller??

I recently purchased these rulers to make smaller plates…..

…and I was excited to try them.

I started with the “Mini” ruler which used a 3.5-inch strip….

Since these wedges are wider (30-degree), only 12 are required to make a plate.

They are also easier to work with because the hole in the middle is built in for you. It didn’t take much time to finish this 7-inch plate…..

Then it was time to try the “TINY” plates.

These started with a 2-inch fabric strip….making for VERY Small wedges….

I was once again worried about turning the points, but my trusty tool worked beautifully…..

….and I quickly had another plate (4-inch) ready to show……

I like the look of the design when all of these sizes are put together…..

What will it become……who knows!!

Tomorrow I will start sharing photos from the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas so PLEASE come back for the show!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

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Let’s make Dresden Plates

As I mentioned in Thursday’s post, I have been thinking about a Dresden Plate quilt.

My fascination started over a year ago when I saw the 22.5-degree wedge ruler from Creative Grids……

….and then watched a YouTube video about how to use it!! Isn’t it amazing what you can learn on YouTube?

Per the instructions, I picked a size to use (5 inches in this case) and cut two strips of coordinating fabric that width…..

I stacked them on top of each other and used the wedge ruler to cut the shapes…..

It was fun to see how they were going to look when pieced….

Now I was off to the machine, starting by folding the wedges in half……

…..and stitching along the wider edge…..

Once I had all 16 sewn…..

…it was time to turn the points……

I was afraid that this might be difficult, but it was fairly easy to do, especially using the pressed center line to line up the seam…..

Once folded and ironed, it was time to match up the sets…..

….stack them one on top of the other, and sew down the long edge…..

Very quickly there were twos….

…..then fours….

…..eights…..

And finally, a full plate…..

Since I was going to cover the center with a circle and didn’t need all of those seams meeting together, I took a pair of scissors and cut it out some…..

When I added a circle, it looked perfect…..

Now the question is….what will I do with this dresden plate……

Why….make more of course!!!

Come back tomorrow for a couple of smaller versions…..

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Let’s piece it…..

Yesterday I showed you my lazy-girl mock-up.

Now it was time to actually piece the squares!!

Since I was going to be working with smaller pieces of fabric, I decided that I would starch them before cutting. I like to use Magic Sizing, spraying the piece liberally and then ironing dry.

It made the fabric much stiffer and I think that it did help with the cutting and piecing!!

I started piecing the various sections…..

…..adding one strip at a time…..

Then I moved to the background sets…..

Before long I was ready to put the two sections together…..

In my original mock-up, I used a blue small square in the center…..

….but I had the thought that a red/maroon one might be better…..

I was right!!!

Once I had all of the squares made, it was time to add the background triangles……

One of my big concerns was that the threads from the color fabrics would shadow through the light-colored background fabric…..

To combat this, I did some extra trimming after each seam was sewed.

First I pulled back the seam allowance…..

….and trimmed the offending fabrics/threads off…..

Now I don’t have to worry about shadowing!!!

So here is my basic design…..

Next step is to decide if I need to add more squares….or maybe two “half-squares” on each end.

I think that I will plan the quilting next to see what other piecing I need to add.

Come back tomorrow for the planning process!!!

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Lazy Mock-up

Yesterday I shared my initial thoughts for the upcoming MQG Fabric Challenge.

Now it was time to make some decisions….. and it was the day before we were leaving on a 7-day overseas trip!! The bags were packed and ready to roll, the house was cleaned up, my studio was immaculate, and I had time on my hands.

Like any good quilter, I started a new project!!

I wanted to make a mock-up of my ideas to see if they would work, but I didn’t want to sew!!

Glue sticks to the rescue!!!

I pulled one piece of the background fabric and drew a line from top to bottom to allow positioning of the pieces…..

I started cutting out each of the fabric pieces, dotting a little glue on the back, and sticking it to the background…..

In a short time, I had this set glued together……

Now I got lazy!!

Instead of making even more glued designs, I took the original to my photocopier……

….and quickly had a bunch to play with……

I now moved to the paper versions and “pieced” them together to give the full design…..

I then pulled a larger piece of background fabric and pinned the paper mock-up to it……

I wasn’t sure that I wanted the extra strips, so I pinned them on.

With this in mind, I headed out on my trip, still thinking about it as I toured around the wilds of Sweden!!

I also had an ulterior motive for making the mock-up before I left…. I wanted to play with quilting designs using Procreate on my iPad. These are two of the ideas that I hatched……

I really like the thought of using a Dreamcatcher in the quilting…..but more about that coming up!!!

This project is well on its way!!!

How do you mock-up your future quilts?

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Tag: Pieced quilts