(details for the giveaways at the end of this post)

One of my favorite quilt blocks ever is a chubby dresden!  I made my first one as part of my first online quilting bee over 3 years ago! It won me over!
The pieces were sent to me already cut and ready to go. That made it so much less intimidating!  At the time I didn't realize that it was from a book that I purchased shortly after that.  Material Obsession by Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty.
I remember buying the book because it was when I first got back into sewing and I felt like buying a quilt book would authenticate me! heheh!  This was actually the first quilt book I ever purchased. I didn't know that the cover pattern would be one that I would use over and over.

Because I would still be working on making the whole quilt featured on the cover I chose to make some minis/tabletoppers with this pattern.  I  made two (almost) identical table toppers:
I love polka dots, so I mimicked the small red dot on white for the background with these bright colors!  I love the way it sets it off.  And the pink on red sunspots from Amy Butler are always a great choice.
And a quilt block for another bee:

One of the secrets of these blocks is that I didn't applique the center circle down in a traditional manner.  I used a raw edge applique and just stitched it down!  The top one has a zig zag stitch, the second one is straight stitched with a pinked edge, and third is straight stitched on a straight cut.  I want to learn to really applique, so maybe I'll do that for my next one!


I don't always enjoy the cutting portion of quilting so I cut a bunch of plates out at the same time. I just used a cereal box to make the template.  It worked pretty well, but since then I've bought an acrylic dresden ruler and hoping that will work a little easier.

I also have an idea to reduce it in size to make some smaller dresdens! Won't that be cute!?

I think Dresdens have so much potential! Planned, scrappy, whatever! This past year I had a few people make me some Christmas Dresdens for my month of the bee.  I think a whole quilt of Christmas wreath dresdens would be amazing!

photo courtesy Rebecca's Rags

photo courtesy Darci - Stitches and Scissors

Dresdens are one of those things that can look so intimidating but once you try them they can be addicting!  I love the modern look of this pattern too.  One of the best things about sewing is that you can take any pattern and make it your own!  I hope you try one of these, they make me happy just looking at them!

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This post is part of the Craft Book Month blog hop at Craft Buds.

Week One