I'm scheduled to teach the Dresden Plate Quilt in a series of classes this summer for Southwestern Community College in Sylva, NC. While in Minneapolis for Quilt Market last week, I perused for a few moments with this old fashioned quilt in mind. Guess what? It seems that the Dresden Plate has become the latest craze, in both traditional and modern flavors! Within about five minutes I had all these pictures, and more!

Three of the quilts pictured above were from various fabric companies, and the fourth, in the lower right corner, is from Suzn Quilts Designs, made in Edyta Sitar's fabrics.

Dresden Plate Quilts by May Chapell and Susan Cleveland

I love Lee Monroe's new visions of the Dresden, shown in the first two photos, above. (Don't you love the quilting in the first photo? That's the artful work of The Backporch Quilters!) I may use her Georgia's Dresden Quilt pattern in the class I'm teaching for the college because it is traditional with great options for color use. Another find at Market was the Dresden pattern collection from Susan Clevleand. She has a very unique way of finishing both the inside and the outside points of her Dresden Plates. I did order all three of these patterns for the shop, as well as the Prairie Point Turner, which Susan developed and uses to make her crisp sharp pointed plates! Look for those products at A Stitch in Time soon.

I've always love the Dresden Plate. Sentimentalities is nothing more than one large Dresden! You can view my video here to see how easily this quilt is consructed, and you can order kits here, with a choice of two colorways!

Thanks for visiting with me today! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie

I don't know why I call these cute little things binding clips. It seems so limiting. Yes, I do use them for helping hold my binding in place when I'm stitching, whether by hand or machine. But I've found lots of other uses for them and today I decided that they are indispensable. With Quilt Market at hand, Bonnie and I are burning the midnight oil making samples from her Succulance line for her booth. Here is today's project:

Bonnie wanted a bit of an urban look for this large, zippered tote, and here's what I came up with. There may be a pattern in the near future, but let me share a few pictures of the process with you.

Using Binding Clips for things other than binding.

The first picture shows how clips helped hold the bottom of the bag for me as I boxed the corners. The middle picture shows how clips held the faux leather in place as I made the straps. Virtually impossible to do with pins. The last picture shows how I used clips to hold the lining to the top of the bag for stitching. Did you know that the back sides of the clips are flat in order to feed through on your sewing machine bed? (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.) So, I must stop calling them binding clips and use their proper name: Wonder Clips! If you haven't added these to your sewing chest, you might want to consider doing so! You'll find them on my shopping page. Leave a comment and tell me how you use your Wonder Clips!

Succulance Bag on Succulance Playful Petals Quilt For Bonnie Christine

Thanks for visiting today! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie