Turning Vintage Feed Sack scrap to Dresden Plate blocks

String piece the tumbler shaped pieces with RST along the wide edge, then fold to RSO and press to make a point.  

Last month, I attended a quilt guild meeting in my area for the first time.  It started off in the normal way with the business being taken care of so that the evening's program and speaker could take over the majority of the time.  On this night, the topic was flour/feed sacks.  I knew what they were, have seen only a few and knew they were used for not only the product intended, but also was an advertising and promotional tool as well as an upcycle textile for home uses.  Like making dresses for children, toys, pot holders for the kitchen, and all sorts.  They also purposely printed patterns for the homemaker to use after the feed and flour were used, sometimes being a dresser scarf or child's romper, even quilt patterns.  The promotions meant having to purchase more product to get the next step, block, or set of patterns to complete the entire set.

With RST, sew each petal along one edge until all 12 petals form a circle. Center onto the background square and pin.  

I learned so much about the age of these printed gems.  Our speaker's mother had compiled years, no, decades of samples which were published in a comprehensive book that has been accepted in the Library of Congress.  Quite an impressive task. 

Baste the petals onto the background to hold in place.  Applique by hand  and remove basting stitching.  

At the end of her talk she had a table filled with vintage pieces of calico feed sacks.  Of course, I had to purchase some.  So, now what to do with these small vintage scraps I've purchased?  Something vintage looking, like Dresden Plate.

In the final step, the center circle is appliqued in the center through all layers.   I have not done any of the appliqueing yet, so these pictures do not show the final block.

This square is 6" when finished.  I purchased the instruction book and template set a few years ago, but this is the first time I've used them.  The last time I tackled a Dresden Plate block was 35 years ago when I attended my first quilting class.  That was a time when templates were cut from cardboard and drawn out with a ruler.