This is the first block for the Christmas Dishes quilt I designed for Village Dry Goods quilt shop in Brigham City, Utah. www.villagedrygoods.com The quilt is a 9 block table-top quilt (48" x 48") with five complete plate blocks and four fan corner blocks. More pictures as the quilt progresses. Village Dry Goods will offer the quilt as a kit with pattern included, and a one-block technique class.
I'm teaching a Christmas Dishes class for the Heritage Quilt Workshop in West Yellowstone, Montana (August 25 or September 30) The fabrics in the photo above are much more whimsical than the prints in the Christmas Dishes class kits for West Yellowstone.
The earlier Christmas Candy Dishes (see earlier posts) quilt these classes are based on is also pretty casual. I suspect I'm going to wind up using this technique for a more formal Christmas quilt, and then for one using woodland colored batiks. This is all rather odd, as I usually don't do the same thing twice. Perhaps the appeal of this Dresden Plate variation is in the fact that it looks much harder than it is. Or maybe I'm just amazed at how slick the technique is. Or maybe it is just that it uses much smaller pieces of fabric, and is really suitable for charm packs and layer cakes. If you're considering diving into this project, start collecting Christmas prints. The most useful sizes are 5" or 10" square, and 5" x Width of Fabric (WOF) strips.
For more information about the West Yellowstone classes, visit the Heritage Quilt Workshop blog. You can register by phone or on-line at the Send-it-Home shop in West Yellowstone. http://www.send-it-home.com
