'Not Nanna's Dresdens' Dresden Plate Sampler

If you've been following me on Facebook, you would have already seen all these pics, but I thought I finally had something to blog about :)

 

So here is my 'Not Nanna's Dresden' Sampler Quilt.

 

 I made this quilt because I will be demonstrating the Westalee Dresden Rulers at the Sydney and Canberra Stitches and Craft shows this year and I wanted to show what amazing things you can do with these rulers!

 This first block is a Rounded Point 8 wedge Dresden plate.

 This is again an 8 wedge Dresden with a Persian Top

 and the 8 wedge with a Round Top.

 For this plate I used the 10 wedge ruler and made the traditional pointed tops, I also layed a second dresden on top and sewed it into the seams of the first so I could leave the points 'free'

 This is one of my favourites :) This is the 20 Wedge with a smaller 'spoke' inserted in every second wedge. This is all done on the machine with no appliqueing neccessary.

 The teal Dresden in this pic is a traditional 16 point Dresden with an 8 wedge appliqued on top. The 8 wedge has round tops and Persian tops alternating.

This is also one of my favourites its and 8 rounded point Dresden with 'spikes'. The teal wedges are sewn into the seams much like the 3D flying geese block and remain 'free' on the sides.

 Here's another using the spikes with the 10 wedge ruler

If you click on the pictures you will see that the Dresden's really pop out of the quilt, I did this by using a medium loft Matilda's Own Polyester Batting and free motion quilting right next to the dresdens. I then cut the excess batting away from the outsides of the Dresdens.

 

Next step was to sandwich the quilt with another layer of the same batting and Ditch stitching. This basically gives a Trapunto effect to each flower. I also 'ditched' every seam of each Flower, this helped to really define the 'petals'.

 

To make the trapunto effect really pop, I heavily quilted the white background with really close free motioned lines (about 1/8 inch apart), I also quilted figure 8's in the border. It used a heck of a lot of thread, but I really love the effect it gives.

 

Now I need to go and get working on my Dresden Quilt that I'm hoping to get finished for my local Quilt Show Competition. Head over to my facebook page for progress pics.

 

Hugs Paula