I made three this year. One I sewed the dresdens on by machine, was beautiful but the points stuck up after quilting. I didn't like that look, tried sewing them down with the machine, didn't like that. Took out some stitches and sewed them down by hand. The other two I sewed to background like I saw Jenny on youtube do. then quilted them. I did cut the back away from all of them. Leaving the background fabric would have made the quilts real heavy. The size is about a twin size.

I took a class with Susan Cleveland at IQF in Houston, and she does a double-pointed dresden plate, where she sews both the top and bottom of the pieces, then turns and presses both ends. That way, she doesn't have to have a center circle to cover the ends, and she can do curves with sections of her DPs like a drunkard's path. She said that she will SITD from the point where the blades are sewn together at the top to the bottom, then fold the point back and stitch UNDER the point. Then she stitches from the bottom to the top, folds the point back and stitches UNDER the point. This gives her DPs a little more dimension. I've never done a DP, but when I do, I will do it this way. Also, she does her SITD before she quilts, so none of the stitching is seen.

The idea of a double point dresden is intriguing. I'll have to play around with that.

I have made 35 dresden plate table toppers since August including some of the double pointed ones. I spray basted my backing to thin batting and background fabric--then spray basted the plate to background and stitched 1/4 or less around all the points. Did echo quilting around outside of plate and then some of the fancy machine stitches around edges of background between plate and binding. Most of these were octogon shape and rest were squares. Most of them were assorted Christmas fabrics for gifts and Festival of Trees donation. That means 700 little wedges to cut and sew and turn the points and press before you can even sew them into the circle--yikes!!!! Good thing I didn't realize that before I started. They've all delivered so can't even look at them--didn't keep even one for myself.

Blanket or zig zag around the points and the center piece. Then I sash them together and put cornerstones on. The come out nice. You can hand appliqué them on also if you have lots of time. Do a search on the board and you will see many examples on how to do it.

I hand baste around the outside of the Dresden laying on the background, then hand-baste the middle. Later I will quilt the whole thing. Haven't decided if I will remove any basting if it annoys me.

When hand sewing the plate and circle to the background fabric, do you work with a hoop, or just work loosely sew the DP and circle to the background?

I hand applique my plates onto the background but I really like hand work. I leave the fabric behind the plate on but can see where it would add weight to a quilt so might consider cutting it away on a larger quilt.

I use the blanket stitch as well. I think it looks better but every one is different.

I did a Dresden Plate quilt for one of our family reunions. I machine stitched the blades together, then pinned them to a background fabric, added the center, then sewed them down. You could also hand applique the plates down if you desire, but I was on a deadline, so I opted for machine applique.