What to do with these pieces
 

A few years ago a friend gave me a small box of vintage quilt pieces. There are large number of this size piece --- 2 3/4" long, 1 3/4" across the top, and 1 1/4" across the bottom.

If I start sewing them together, am I going to end up with a Dresden plate?

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They do look like they were for a Dresden Plate. Will be fun to see what the final product looks like.

Lay them out and see what size circle you get. Looks like a fun project.

It looks more like double wedding ring pieces to me because they are so short. By the time you sew across the top they would barely have any length.

Or maybe for a double wedding ring?

I think they are wedding ring pieces. Very lovely......

I was also wondering about if they were double wedding ring pieces. I need to play around with them a bit.

i agree with this. the pieces are such a treasure.

Wrong shape for weddingring. I've made several. Most likely a dresden with a large center.

Yep, double wedding ring as you can see from the piece on the right in the picture.

The piece on the left is from me playing around with sewing them, alternating the position so it comes out as a row.

I may do something non-traditional with them.
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Actually I wonder if they weren't for a Grandmothers Fan. I just saw one in an older quilting magazine and the pieces looked just like yours.

I would do a running stitch across the top, turn to make a point and either do a Dresden or use them like prairie points. I would do that by hand so it could be removed if it doesn't work....just a thought if you are playing. They do look like feedback fabric. Lucky you!

It's a mystery! Just have to sew them together with long stitch to find out... Let us all know...

If you flip one up and one down, you could make a version of a tumbler quilt, maybe?

Whatever pattern you choose, the finished product is going to be awesome with the older fabrics.

Lucky you is right, obtaining feed sack fabrics!!! Hope you come up with something interesting. Will follow.

In addition to the other guesses tendered, they might also be for a windmill block. That would be similar to a pinwheel block but using the pieces you have with white or other solid background fabric instead of triangles.

Yes, I think this was the "plan". I have a box of these....some were hand sewed with a solid 1/4 " circle making a small gf.. Also saw this in an older mag called something like snake hollow or something.........

The only thing that I'd add is that the pieces are old and already show some signs of raveling. If they were mine, I'd not sew them until I was sure that I had a real pattern in mind. To know what you might want to do with them, maybe you could 4-8 of each of 4 or 5 solid colors in the same size as these pieces. You could them manipulate them into several different patterns, sew one of each of the patterns. You'd then have a better sense of what you'd like to do with these specific ancient pieces.

Why not stitch them with wide size up and the other wide size down and keep sewing them that way til you have a row wide enough to suit you, after you have several rows us a thin/narrow sashing in between rows, would make a nice quilt with light and dark borders.

You could also do a Grandmas Fan pattern on muslin. That would be pretty.

Look like double wedding ring pieces to me.