Hi ,

It's time to piece our fourth block for the Machine Quilting Block Party and this month it's a Daisy Dresden Plate!

In this quilting tutorial you'll learn how to turn the edges of the curved petal shapes, piece the twelve petals together, and machine applique the Dresden Plate to your block background.

The only tricky thing about this pattern is making sure your templates are printed the right size.

You can find the petal cutting and turning template on page 6 of the pattern and make sure to measure the 1-inch square on the page so you're sure the templates print correctly. Some printers can do funky things like add borders and automatically shrink the page so watch out for that.

This time I decided to stitch the Dresden Plate down to the block background with a blanket stitch with contrasting white thread. This made it stand out quite a bit on the quilt surface.

You can also use a straight stitch and match the thread color with the fabric color like we did with Block 2, the Pointy Eight Dresden Plate.

You can also hand applique the Dresden Plate petals and center circle too. 

Always remember there are multiple ways to tackle any technique and never a single way to do anything in quilting. It's good to try a lot of techniques to find the one you like best.

Speaking of techniques, we'll be trying lots of fun quilting designs with this block next week. I used circular rulers to quilt the center circles in my block, then added Microstippling just for fun.

You'll also learn how to quilt feathers, arches, and easy bouncy echoes too.

Be looking for the quilting video for this block coming out next Monday.

Until next week, let's go quilt!

Leah Day