Dresden Plate Pattern

This past season our quilt guild had a "secret sister" program. It was the first time our guild offered this so I decided to participate. You drew a name out of a hat along with a short profile of your "secret sister".You were never to divulge who your "secret sister" was. Every month you would leave a present at the guild meeting for your "sister" without being seen by anyone. That was difficult to do because the members were always milling about. The program carried on for 8 months and during that time my "secret sister" gave me several pieces of fabric. I wanted to make something special out of that fabric to commemorate the occasion and having thought about it for awhile decided on a lap size Dresden Plate quilt.I have always loved that pattern and have not made one for many years. I hope to surprise my "secret sister" by showing it to her at our guild meeting in September.

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This quilt is my own interpretation of that classic pattern. I wanted something a little different, something that was my own design. So instead of the circle in the centre I decided to applique a heart. The heart was to symbolize how much I appreciated the fabrics she gave me and how much I thought of her as my "sister". The block size is 10" and the blade size I just "eyeballed" until I found a size pleasing to my block and cut out a paper template. Once the blades where cut I sewed across the tops of the fabric pieces to form the points for the blades. I sewed all the blades together trying to get a random placement because I was limited by the number of fat quarters I had. I appliqued the Dresden Plate to the background fabric and used the freezer paper technique for the heart applique. I then appliqued the heart to the centre of the plate to finish the block. I now have to give some thought to the sashing and cornerstone colour. A lot depends on how much fabric I have left of my "secret sister's" fabric. We'll see what transpires.

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