Combining My Love of Quilting and Nature

Monday, March 13, 2017

Dresden Plates

The other class I took at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show was with Susan Cleveland from Minnesota using an 18 degree Dresden plate template.  She has a different technique in which you essentially flip and sew individual Dresden segments onto a cotton circle that you have drawn and cut to the appropriate size.  The theory behind this is that your Dresden plates--when completed--will lay flat.  And this is what actually happened.
This top that I made isn't anything like her sample.    I precut my plate segments before I went to class--to save time  (and also, to cut at leisure in my own studio).  The problem was that not all 18 degree rulers are the same.  (I think my ruler was longer than hers and I started cutting at a different location on it than she did).  My plates ended up with a much smaller central hole and thus I couldn't interlock mine the way she had done in her quilt.
So, in a good way, that was a blessing because I had to come up with my own design.  I also added that black fabric behind the plates to make them stand out more against the black and white fabric background.
All in all, I really enjoyed this class and learned a few things along the way.  Susan is such a delightful person and everyone in the class responded to that.  You couldn't ask for a better day.

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