Dresden Plate Blog Hop

Time for the November Blog Hop for Island Batik!  This month we are featuring the Dresden Plate block, and I am excited to see all the fun quilts using this classic block.  There really are a lot of ways to use it in a quilt, and I'm sure we'll see some really interesting designs.  The supplies for this quilt were provided to me by Island Batik and their sponsors as part of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

I received a gorgeous bundle of fabric for this project - it's Flowing Meadow designed by Kathy Engle.  I love the rich colors in this collection, they are really beautiful!

I found a neat template at Missouri Star Quilt Company from Me and My Sister Designs to make a unique Dresden block, it's a Four-Patch Double Wide Dresden (that's a mouthful!).  The template came with a free Starburst Table runner pattern, and I enlarged it to make a lap size quilt.

To get started on my Dresden Plate blocks, I needed to use my background I needed to make 10 four-patch blocks for each block.  I used all 20 fabrics from Flowing Meadows with the background provided (Vanilla).  It's always a little hard to take the pretty bundle apart, it looks so pretty!

 After sewing all the four patches, I cut out my wedges with the ruler.  I used Aurifil 50 weight in a variety of colors to do all the piecing.  I like using up bobbins for this kind of scrappy quilting!

The seams are pressed open on these four-patches.  My Oliso iron really helped me get these blocks nice and flat so they were easy to cut with the template.

After cutting out the wedges, you fold the top and the bottom edges in half and sew together to create the points - I love this technique as it creates finished edges to work with, and doing this with the inside creates a fun star in the center!

You can see how this works from the back.  

I love how clean and neat the edges look!  The next step is to sew this to the background square.  I had some 80 weight thread from Aurifil in beige to use for this step.  This is awesome thread for invisible hand sewn stitches!

I have some nice applique pins from Dritz that were perfect for this project!  They are short, so they don't catch on your thread as much when you are hand stitching.

I made nine blocks for the center of my quilt, then added a piano key border!  I think this helps show off the fabrics, and the gorgeous plum fabric really added a nice accent!  I also was able to use this for the binding.  

I was eager to try this special batting from Hobbs!  It's so soft and cozy! 

And such nice definition for the quilting!  I'm still getting used to my new machine, but I am loving how nicely it is quilting for me.  I used Aurifil thread in a gold color for this and quilted with a size 16 Schmetz Microtex needle as I had several layers of batik and the thicker batting.  I've adjusted the color on this picture, I just couldn't quite capture how pretty the Vanilla background is, my camera seems to wash it out and it's such a lovely yellow!

Here is the finished quilt!  I love the sparkle that these Dresden Plates have!  This project finished at 56 inches square.  It was a fun challenge - these blocks took a bit longer than my usual but were definitely worth the effort!  And I really loved working with these beautiful fabrics!

Thanks to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles, Oliso, and Aurifil Thread for the products used to create this project!

I am giving away two sets of 5 inch squares that I cut from my leftover fabric!  Leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite quilt block is! (Winners selected!  Congrats to Quilting Tangent and Valerie Dix!)

Don't forget to follow along for the rest of the hop and see what the rest of the ambassadors have created for their challenge! And go check out Connie's quilt from the Flowing Meadows collection!