Wednesday 14 January 2015

Vintage Dresden Quilt




A Dresden quilt has been on my quilting bucket list forever! I've long admired those beautiful, vintage quilts from the 1930's - around the time the classic pattern became so popular. It's the perfect pattern to showcase the vintage reproduction small scale florals I love most, and when I discovered Sizzix had a rounded edge Dresden die-cut I knew I had no excuse not to start one! No more cutting out those fiddly curved shapes, hooray! So let's get started;

Sizzix Die-Cuts:
Dresden Plate, Large // SKU: 659847
Bigz Circle 4inch // SKU: A10211




With the Sizzix machine, these Dresden blocks are a piece of cake to put together. Here are some brief instructions to help you along the way.

1. For each completed Dresden block - you will need to cut (12) plate's. Join the plate's together in pair's, chain piecing as you go. Be sure to use a very accurate 1/4" seam allowance to ensure your blocks lay flat. Once you've joined all the sections together give it a good press.


2. Using some interfacing or some other lightweight fabric, place the block right sides down and sew 1/4" all the way around the edge. Sew a gradual curve between the points to your block will sit nicely when it's turned right sides out. 


3. Cut all the interfacing to the seam line and clip the the corners to reduce bulk. 


4. Turn right sides out, paying careful attention to the edges. Press well. 
5. Cut a piece of backing fabric 18" square. Fold in half and half again - press the centre point and position the Dresden plate to the centre. Needle-turn the Dresden to the backing fabric with a neutral thread. 


6. For each Dresden block, cut (2) 4inch circles from your chosen fabric (there is a centre circle included with the Dresden die-cut, however I wanted a larger centre so I'm using a different die-cut). 
7. Place the two circles right sides together and sew 1/4" around the edge. Clip into the curve's to reduce the bulk. 
8. Snip into the centre of one circle and turn right sides out. Press flat.


9. Centre the circle onto the block and pin in place. Take small needle-turn stitches to secure in place.

That's our first block finished! I'm planning on making it 4 x 4 blocks so we will need 16 blocks in total for our quilt top. I'll be back at the end of this month with my progress (since I was late posting this month, sorry about that!) you can also follow along with me on Instagram @messyjesse1, I hope you can join in the sewing fun too! We'll have a little impromptu sew-a-long using the hashtag #SizzixDresdenQuilt ;-)

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