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Easy Dresden Ruler

Easy Dresden Ruler

Written by: 
scastaneda

National Sewing Month 2013

Moda has invited me to participate in their Moda Cutting Table Blog to talk about one of my most popular rulers—the Easy Dresden.

 

Last year Easy Dresden created quite a buzz in the industry. The Salt Lake City Modern Quilt Guild sponsored a contest using the Easy Dresden, and fabulous entries came pouring in. It was amazing to see the creative ways in which quilters used this very simple tool. Go to www.slcmqg.com to see some of the quilts.

 

I developed Easy Dresden 15 years ago when I was trying to “fix” some vintage Dresden Plate blocks. They didn’t lay flat because the angle of the wedge wasn’t correct. If you remember from your geometry classes in school that you need 360 degrees to make a circle. Anything more or less will not give you a flat or complete circle. I  could not find an accurate template; especially not a template that I could use for rotary cutting. So, I made my own.

 

I chose to use an 18 degree wedge as it would have 20 wedges in a circle, or 5 in a fan. I also chose to make it mult-sized so you could make everything from a miniature quilt to a single ring for a table centerpiece. Easy Dresden was the result!

 

Easy Dresden is a simple tool. You don’t need diagrams, long involved instructions or even a pattern to use it.

 

You can use Easy Dresden to create Dresden Plates of all sizes, Grandmother’s Fans of all sizes and also large Tumbler quilts or tiny Thimble quilts. The directions with the tool and on the website listed above have tables that tell you what size finished block different size wedges will yield. You can easily make the size block/quilt that YOU want to make using these tables. Create your OWN pattern!

 

If you prefer a ready-made pattern, here is “Sunday Best”, a free pattern for you to use.
Below find a few more photos for inspiration!

Or, go to my website: www.feedsacklady.com for patterns.

 

I will be giving away one of my rulers to one lucky winner!

 

To enter please leave a comment about what your favorite notion is.

 

You will have until September 30th at midnight to comment. All winners will be randomly selected and announced on Moda...The Cutting Table Blog on October 2nd.

 

Make sure to visit the blog every day for the opportunity to win each giveaway!

 

 

Darlene Zimmerman

 

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