Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Going to Dresden-- the big finish!

Let's finish our Dresden Plate blocks with an easy way to make perfect circles and lots of fancy stitches!

(If you need to catch up:  Part 1 and Part 2)

We've constructed the petal portion of the block and pinned it to an 18 1/2" square of background fabric.
To construct the center circles:  find a bowl, plate, or something circular that's at least 3/4 of an inch larger than the center of the block.  I used a 9" luncheon size plate and it worked just fine.

Trace the circle onto a piece of lightweight fusible stabilizer.  I always have a bolt of Pellon 960F in the house for making T shirt quilts, so that's what I used.





 Cut out the circle a little outside of the drawn line, and pin it to the fabric you've chosen for the center.

Pin right sides together:  the rougher side of the stabilizer is the right side, so have that facing the right side of the fabric.







 Sew all the way around the circle on the drawn line.



Trim away the excess fabric, then cut a slit in the back of the stabilizer.

Pull the the fabric through the hole.  You will have a circle with the right side of the fabric facing up and the right (rougher) side of the fusible stabilizer on the back facing down.
 Center the circle and iron to fuse to the block.
Now it's time for my favorite part:  fancy stitches!

These pictures were taken from the back of the completed blocks (before basting and quilting).



A narrow zig zag stitch, a single or double blanket stitch, or a satin stitch around the edges of the petals and the outside of the circle will all work fine.



Baste and quilt to finish.

My sampler turned out about 18 x 54"











With all the bright colors I used for the blocks I decided to keep the quilting simple with wavy horizontal lines done in invisible thread.













1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting this!!! I just got the miniature 2.5" tumbler die and I'm going to try this as soon as I get out of this bathtub!! :)

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