Appreciating Beautiful Dresden Plate

This is one of my embroidered Dresden plate blocks I worked for what was going to be a wall hanging five or six years ago.  The pattern is called Susan's Dresden Plates from Crabapple Hill Studio.  It is really a very charming design and I loved working mine in dark pinks and light blues.  I did not use it for a hanging but sewed the blocks into two table runners which worked out well.  The orginal at the Crabapple Hill Studio site is worked in blues and the appliqued blocks are blues and yellows.  I think it is beautiful and really you could use the blocks for any number of projects. 
I am fond of this particular patchwork block...Dresden plate.  Both grandmothers and my mother have used it in their quilting projects.  It is a versatile design and there are several variations of it that can be used to suit whatever fabric you have available.  It looks good pieced in one solid colour or as a true patchwork, in many prints and colours.  Of course, it is a great way to use up leftover fabric scraps as well. 
What a wonderful idea to incorporate embroidery with the Dresden design.  At a local quilt show several years ago, I saw this very design used in a full double quilt.  It was presented to a young couple as their wedding gift from an aunt and was just spectacular.  It was the most oohhed and ahhed over quilt at the show and for several reasons.  The embroiderer had used creams, pale pinks and yellows, a very pleasing palette and it had been professionally quilted with the most amazing ferns and flower designs in the border.  I spent a long time looking at this quilt, taking in just how wonderful all the stitching was and generally totally in awe of its beauty.  I also had a real appreciation of all the work that had gone into it; that's something I think only other stitchers can really understand.