Have you ever collaborated with Anonymous?

Using vintage textiles in new quilts.

About 10 years ago, I purchased a stack of unfinished vintage Dresden Plate rings online. Several full rings accompanied a handful of half and quarter rings and a few random blades. The fabrics were charming and the prints were cheerful vintage feedsack prints and other 1920s and 1930s small scale patterns. These Dresden rings were hand pieced.

Serendipity stepped in one day and they happened to be lying beside a stack of blocks that I made in a Marti Michell learning-to-work-with-templates workshop.

Hmmm.... they look pretty good together.

Hmmm.... could they play together in a quilt?

Let's see if this will work.

And so became this quilt, "Dresden meets Marti at Riverbend." This is another quilt I brought to the "Back to the Future" kick-off meeting at the Choo Choo Quilters guild. Here is the quilt hanging in the Georgia Quilt Show in 2010. 

"Dresden meets Marti at Riverbend"
2009, 45" x 48"

If you're familiar with Chattanooga's annual Riverbend Music Festival, you can envision the various music stages and concession tents that line the street paralleling the winding Tennessee River that runs through the city.

Although traditionally placed on a light background, my vintage Dresden pieces felt right at home on the darker, contemporary tonal fabrics.

Vintage Dresden fans stand out on these dark backgrounds.

The curved appliquéd Dresden rings nicely complement the angles and geometric shapes in the patchwork.

Free-motion machine quilting on my Dresden time-span quilt.

I took cues from the fabric prints for the free-motion machine quilting designs.

Free-motion quilting.

This quilt top was a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle that had pieces missing. Spacer blocks were used to fill in the areas between the appliqué and pieced blocks. The asymmetrical layout, however, lends itself to the festival theme.

The interplay of color and stitch connects the two sets of quilt blocks as well as the different generations of the quiltmakers. Who says you can't mix hand and machine piecing? And these blocks were from two different centuries!

Detail of "Dresden meets Marti at Riverbend" quilt.

This was a fun time-span quilt to make. Both the Dresden rings—hand pieced by an anonymous quilter—and my workshop quilt blocks found their way into a completed quilt. And I believe a finished quilt is always a good thing. For Ms. Anonymous and me, this might not otherwise have happened if we hadn't collaborated.

Have you ever collaborated with Anonymous?

Piecing Dresden plate blocks

I had a great group of quilters at the "So Easy Dresden" class last weekend. And, let me tell you, these women were nailing that quarter-inch seam! Whoa.

So Easy Dresden class

With sixteen 22.5-degree wedges that have to fit together exactly to form a circle, you have to get that 1/4-inch seam allowance pretty much on-the-money or your plate will not lie flat. They did it… waaaay better than I do when making these blocks.

The class fabric and color combinations were charming, colorful and festive. Students auditioned background and border possibilities. Some of these Dresdens will likely find their way to holiday tables and be used as decorations for the season.

Mary's Dresden

Martha's Dresden

Frances' Dresden

Lisa's Dresden

Judy's Dresden

Brenda's Dresden

My students made excellent progress on their Dresden plates. We discussed options for hand and machine appliqué and tips for quilting this dimension quilt block. This is a perfect small project for practicing free-motion quilting.

"So Easy Dresden" quilting class at Chattanooga Sewing Center
Chattanooga, TN

Very well done, ladies! I can't wait to see your finished projects. Thanks for an enjoyable class.

Easy Dresden class this Saturday

The Dresden Plate quilt block is a classic. Whether you make it with traditional style fabrics, '30s reproduction prints, popular blenders, batiks or even hand-dyed fabrics, the geometric nature of this block lends itself to just about any taste and style.

I'm teaching a "So Easy Dresden" class this Saturday at Chattanooga Sewing Center.

My personal quilting aesthetic tends to employ a bold, bright color palette as you can see by these Dresden examples.

"Sidewalk Surprises" (detail)

My first quilt soiree with this 3D Dresden block, however, was with Blank Quilting Corp's black and white pre-cut strip set paired with Blank's popular Splash blender (I had a Splash fat quarter bundle to pull colors for the Dresden centers).

"Moon Garden" (detail)

This quilt is called "Moon Garden" and you can read about it in this post.

Dresden Star 3-D quilt block.

Isn't this a cool block? Those sharp star points are actually 3-dimensional. It looks complex, but it's really easy. All done by machine—piecing and appliqué. And the petals and points are accurately cut with reusable acrylic templates. I'm telling you… it's "sew" easy.

Wanna try it? I'm teaching a Sew Easy Dresden class this Saturday, November 15, at Chattanooga Sewing Center. Call (423) 899-3664 to see if there are any spaces available. (It was almost full 2 weeks ago.)

How about using a collection of festive prints and whipping up a little tree skirt in time for the holidays? One of my students made this one last year (so, so, sooo cute!). Once you make one Dresden block… you'll want to make 5 more!

Dresden Star tree skirt.

Join me for a fun project this Saturday!

Modern Dresden

"Moon Garden" (detail).

Circular motifs such as flowers and sunbursts are versatile quilt block motifs. The Dresden Plate, a popular pattern in the 1920s and 30s, is one of those patterns that can look graphic and modern or classic and traditional depending on fabric choices.

My quilt, "Moon Garden," shows off a bright, bold and graphic Dresden Plate through the use of black-and-white prints and bright, contemporary fabrics. And... the construction is very easy and fun and all done on the sewing machine.

Want to learn this fun and easy technique?
I'm teaching the "So Easy Dresden" class this Saturday at Pins and Needles Quilt Shop. We'll work on the block in class, and once you see how fast and fun it is, you'll want to make more! (I did!)

"So Easy Dresden" class project.

Here is a full view of Moon Garden. The quilting stats and thread information can be found here. Visit Judy Anne Breneman's web page for history about the versatile Dresden Plate quilt block.

"Moon Garden."
57.5" x 75"

A single Dresden Plate block would make a great pillow. But you can expand your options with multiple blocks to make a beautiful wall hanging or a larger quilt. Will you go modern and graphic or classic and traditional?? I hope to see you in class to find out!