That is beautiful! I love Dresden plates and the color are gorgeous.
When I first read about your starch can it was an older post so I didn't understand that you used the lid for the scallops. I thought you used starch to attach the applique pieces and thought... that's a great idea! Starch it really good so that it sticks to the background and then sew around it. When washed it would come loose in the middle and it would be like needle turn or something.