This is one of those blocks that I was sure I was ruining while I was quilting it, but when it was done I decided I like it after all. I quilted the zigzags in the background first and then did the arcs inside the Dresden petals and outlined the inner circle. I went around the petals twice: once for the larger loops and then a second time for the smaller ones. I used the same dark green thread on all the petals. That was what initially made me think I’d ruined it, because the quilting showed up so clearly on the light green petals (and looked a little wonky, frankly). Now I actually like the effect. If I were doing it again, I’d take the bottom of the arcs all the way down to the center circle and I’d probably use lighter green thread for the lighter petals. Live and learn!

When I made this block, I modified it slightly from the original. There are little circles on every other petal in the original but I really liked the simplicity of the plain Dresden so I didn’t add those.

Dreaming of Dresdens is block 26 of The Splendid Sampler and was designed by Jane Davidson.