This is my absolute favorite block thus far. When I think of old fashioned quilts, the Dresden Plate block is one that always comes to mind. I was excited to tackle it and it did not disappoint. I found the June blocks to be rather boring but this one held my interest. It has all the elements: precise cutting and piecing, good use of scrap fabric, lots of color and even some hand sewing if I so wish (and I do). You start by cutting 20 different "blades". I purchased a special EZ Dresden cutting template to aid in their cutting. It was $10 and worth every penny. Here is my stack of blades ready to be sewn.
You fold them in half, right sides together, and sew across the bottom of each piece. If you sew them in a chain, one after the other, it goes very fast and you don't waste thread.
Then you cut them apart, turn them right side out and iron the resulting points. I stacked them as they were finished, to keep them in order. I had already figured out the color placement ahead of time.
Next I sewed the blades together, at the sides, to form a big ring.
I also sewed a center circle out of the background fabric. The pattern called for a 4" circle but that proved too small to fill in the empty space. I tried a 4.5" circle and that worked perfectly. The ring and circle were then applied to the 12.5" background square, as shown at the beginning of this post. I still have to sew them down using a blind stitch. I know there will be many, many more Dresden Plate Blocks in my future.
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