Dresden Pillow part deux

Early in the year I made this pillow/mini quilt for a private swap with my friend Tracey (who, by the way, has just given birth to the most adorable little girl, so if you have a sec, stop by and wish her well!). Before mailing it to California, I shared the project at my traditional guild's show and tell. The response was lovely and the workshop coordinator asked if I would give a workshop on how to piece and applique a dresden by machine. Why yes, of course I would! I love teaching workshops. It helps when all of your students are friends from guild!

So, due to the fact that my sample is a couple thousand km south of our meeting hall, I made up another one.

It is a slightly simplified version in the hopes that people will be able to complete the top and back during the one-day workshop. I nixed the narrow inner selvage border and went with a covered zip closure instead of a buttonhole placket on the back. I couldn't resist duplicating the fabric, though. I just love this French General red for fall decor and the hand of this fabric is luscious....just buttery soft.

Everything is done by machine, except for the hand-tacking of the binding to the back. The alphabet print is my favourite from the La Petite Ecole line. The binding is a striped print from the line, but I cut it on the bias (bias stripes on a binding are just happy-making, don't you think?).

The double centre wasn't intended. It became a necessity when the original larger circle fabric turned out to be rather transparent after it was fused on with steam-a-seam. The seam allowances of the dresden blades showed through and I didn't like the way that looked, so I slapped on the smaller red circle: problem solved! I love the machine blanket stitch around the circle edges. It was a major selling feature of my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 because it's got a 9mm throat plate which means you can do a HUGE blanket stitch if you want to.

I have to write up detailed instructions for the workshop, so I'm considering making this my first official .pdf pattern for download. I'd love your feedback on what you like (or could do without) in .pdf patterns. Lots of photos? Detailed explanations? Quilting instructions? Do you follow those patterns via laptop beside your sewing machine, or do you prefer less pages so you can print them out? Bring it on people, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Since this pillow is ideal for sprucing up your armchair for autumn, I'm linking up to Rachel's Celebrate Color event. Stop in and see some of the other gorgeous projects there!