EZ Dresden

This quilt has been finished for a bit, I've been waiting to post until Katja could get the Dresden ruler in.  I started with an assortment of 5 1/2" strips of reproduction 30s fabric, 2.2 metres of background, an assortment of 4" scraps of solids and an EZ Dresden ruler.

Using the ruler I cut 5 1/2" dresden shapes from several different fabrics.

I used a pencil to lightly mark the centre of the dresden shape on the wrong side.

With right sides together I sewed across the top of the dresden shapes.  I trimmed a little off the centre corner to make the point easier to turn.

The fabric was then turned right side out.  I used my small screw driver to help turn the point out to a fairly crisp shape.  Using the pencil mark for a guideline I pressed the point with the seam matching my pencil line.

I sewed twenty dresden blades together to make a full plate.  I made ten full plates.  I sewed ten together to make a half plate. I made four half plates.

I cut 16" squares of background for the full plates and 8 1/2" x 16 rectangles for the half plates.  I machine appliquéd my plates onto the backgrounds, but you could hand appliqué if you want.  After the appliqué was finished I trimmed the squares to 15" and the half squares to 7 3/4" x 15".

For the centres of the plates I found a cup that was 3 1/4" in diameter and used it as a template.  I cut a piece of cardboard to size, cut the fabric a little bigger, basted around the edges, pulled the basting around the cardboard and then ironed the fabric in the circular shape.  I also machine appliquéd the circles.