Dresden quilt??
 

I have always wanted to make this quilt but thought that it would be to hard for me, and take so long to make all the blades for the block. (20) per block...

My friends hubby gave me all of my friends quilting things when she passed away. I looked at most but there was so many totes fill of things for quilting, fabric, rulers etc,I just left some as they came to me, she was known for buying what ever she liked or thought she would use, and some of the things still had the price tag on them so I know she never got a chance to use them. I sure do miss her but it gives me great comfort to know I am using her things as she would have loved to use them all.

I did remember that I had seen a Dresden ruler in one of the totes so I looked and found a Easy Dresden by Darlene Kimmerman..So I guess this will be my next quilt. I am going to use scarps, and there are lots of different colors, I did look up pictures of the Dresden quilts and seen that a lot of them are made with different fabric and very scarpy looking.
I did see that most of the quilts made used the same color fabric for the center circle. Do you think it would look ok with different color center circles. I also see that most use the color of the background fabric that the plate is put on for there center circle, I think this kind of pulls the quilt together..

Also Is there a chart that tells what size the background fabric should be cut for each different size plate. I think I seen somewhere that you should cut the background fabric 2 inches bigger all around the plate, is this about right, not sure on that part.. Maybe it really doesn't matter what size you cut for the background, I really don't know. but I don't want the quilt to look bad after cutting and sewing all of the blades together. I'm sure someone will help with this and give me there thoughts..

Thanks for your input on this..

Make a couple blocks with your ideas concerning centers then lay them on folded fabric & play with the size until you have a ( pleasant to your eye) size background square. What you find pleasing will make the project more enjoyable. There is no set rule about size of blocks. After you make a couple plates you can determine what size blocks be determining what size quilt you want to make- then you will know how many plates you have to make. ( 12" plate on a 16" background square {2" on each side of plate} 5 across would be 75" wide, 6 down = 90" -- 30 plates. )
Adjust, determine by the size quilt you want & the size of the plates-- how many you want to make. :)

There are so many variations. Have you Google Dresden quilt patterns??

I would make a dresden plate first in a size you think you will like. Then I would cut just a few background pieces (maybe 4) and cut them considerably larger than the 2" you mentioned. I would probably cut them *at least* 3" bigger all around. Remember you will need some background fabric for seam allowances, plus appliqueing to a background fabric sometimes draws up the background fabric to a smaller size. I would applique four plates to four background squares before deciding on how large to cut the remaining background squares. When doing applique, I ***always*** cut the background squares larger than I want the finished blocks. This is because the first time I did applique I cut them exactly the size the pattern called for and ended up with backgrounds only 1/4" away from the edge at some points in the blocks. Cured me of cutting background squares too small! If you cut too large, you can always trim not only to size but also to absolute accuracy so the blocks go together easily.

This is how I've seen it done.

There was a free pattern offered awhile back using that template/ruler I think. http://bunnyhillblog.com/free-patter...n-plate-quilt/