Leslie's Dresden Plates

Leslie arrived at my house with 16 vintage Dresden Plate quilt blocks.  Leslie told me that her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother had pieced and hand embroidered them all.  Leslie told me that they were all from flour sacks from the 1930's and 40's, and a few had segment that had been replaced.   I think at some point in their existence they may have been put into a quilt top and tied to finish.  This is just based on some stitching lines around some of the blocks, and what appears to be the remnants from a yarn tie in the center of most of the blocks.  Leslie trusted me with these lovely blocks, and asked me to make them into a quilt of 12 blocks, and 4 pillows.  Lucky me!

I trimmed all the blocks to a consistent size, then added sashing fabrics and corner stones for frames.  Then the real fun began because I got to quilt them!

First I used the seams of each segment as a spine for feathers, and stitched in the ditch around the center circle.  I didn't want my cream thread to compete with the black hand embroidery, so I didn't stitch around the appliques.  I added a background fill of a loose meander to just hold everything together.

All of the sashing strips received a feather that met in the middle.  That way there is no top or bottom to the design, and it can go any direction.

Last was to add a small feathered wreath in each of the corner stones.  What a lovely quilt, and it's going to be a lovely gift for Leslie's 86 yo mother, daughter and grand-daughter of the women who made the blocks in the first place.  What a great ending to a lovely collection of blocks.