quiltsfor

I'm making a Dresden Christmas Tree Wall Hanging. I've never made Dresden's before and I'm having an issue of getting a half circle of them. It's either over a half or it's under a half, but never a clear half circle after putting them together. I've tried 8 wedges, 9 wedges, even 10 wedges. Is there a 'secret' to doing them. All of my seams measure 1/4", When I flip the point after I sew across the top, I make sure the 'seam' is center line before ironing the point of the Dresden. I'm using an actual Dresden Ruler from MSQ. How do you figure out how many Dresden's are in a circle, a half circle?? I'm throwing my hands up in ugg's, to the point I even let dinner overcook because I was back fiddling with them... I know, I know shouldn't have been at the time, but luckily dinner still tasted good!

Anyhow, can anyone help out? I'm completely new to Dresden's, but I really like how they look and plan on doing a large quilt with them on it, if I can figure them out, that is. Is the trick to sewing them 2 x 2, then 4 x 4, etc until you have a half or full circle? I wouldn't think it would matter when all the seams are the same 1/4", so I didn't do that, instead I just kept sewing one onto another, then added another, and so on. They are befuddlling me. They all measure the same size (width), even after sewing them. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Barb in Louisiana

This is a free pattern of a Dresden Plate Block. https://www.quilterscache.com/D/DresdenPlateBlock.html
I Googled the Dresden Christmas Tree Wall Hanging and found several different patterns with that name. Which one are you making? Could you give us a link?
FYI....Most time when I am sewing, my seam allowances don't actually measure 1/4". They are always a bit short because the finished size is what I am trying to achieve.

Anniedeb

I did Donna Jordan's Dresden Bloom, and it has 1/2 circles and full circles, and when I put them together, I did sew 2x2, then 4x4, etc. It was a little fiddly, but made nice 1/2 and full circles. They all easily eased into place.

quiltingcandy

The pattern should tell you how many blades to make., some are 12, others are more. That would determine how many make a half. I also sew them in sections and then sew the sections together to make a full plate.

SueZQ from MN

You might not be doing anything wrong, When making dresdens, the primary number that you need to know is the number of degrees in each wedge, There are 360 degrees in a circle so if you have 10 degree wedges, you will need 18 for a half circle, if the wedges are 18 degrees each, you'd have 10 in a half circle, and so on. Standard rulers I have are 10, 18, and 15 degrees plus one more that I don't remember. If you have a 40 degree wedge, it would require 9 segments for a full circle, and an exact 1/2 circle would not be possible with this wedge as it would be 4 wedges totaling 160 degrees or 5 sections that would equal 200 degrees. If the size isn't marked on the template, take a piece of newspaper and continue to trace your template into a circle, overlapping the seam allowances, until the circle is complete. This will tell you how many wedges you need for the full circle. If the number is even, great, you can make 1/2 circles, of it is odd, you cannot, Is this plain as mud? haha As for sewing the pieces together, sewing pairs to pairs prevents distortion.

quiltsfor

This is the quilt I am planning to make. I already have the pattern. I am doing the Christmas tree Dresden wall hanging as a prelude to doing a full quilt.

quiltsfor

I am making this one. Dresden Tree Wall Hanging The actual wall hanging is turning out like it is supposed to (there are just blades of different sizes - no half circles of Dresden's) I even added more rows to make a bigger tree.

The Dresden ugg started because I had some extra scrape fabric and decided to see if I could make an actual half circle or a full circle Dresden since I was going to be doing a quilt with them, and with the 'blades' I had putting together for the tree, (especially since I added a bigger row of the full 9" blade on the bottom of the tree), it didn't look like it would ever make a half circle, I experimented and couldn't get there, it always seemed to be either too many or too few blades to make a half circle or full circle. This is the quilt mentioned earlier: Cozy Quilt Design Dresden Bloom Quilt

quiltsfor

Thank you, this helps as I also have different size Dresden Rulers.

Onebyone

I don't get frustrated about wedge or Drestens. Sometimes I have to make a slightly skinny one to make everything fit or a slightly oversize one, sometimes I have to add another whole one. Really unless you measure each one its not noticeable. I entered a Drestin in a show and had several with a few skinnier blades. I won 2nd place in my division. The judge never mentioned it. She did comment on my binding not having the miter corner overlap stitched. I never do that anyway.

quiltedsunshine

In the picture, you need 10 blades for a half circle, and 20 blades for a full circle. If that is not happening for you, you may need to adjust your seam allowance to make it work. For me, sometimes I need to sew the narrower end of the blade with just a little wider seam allowance.