Dresden Plate quilt finished!

When it's hot outside, what else can you do but keep sewing? I've managed to get another project to completion. I think I said it before - well, I know I have - love this quilt. It's my current favorite; if you're allowed to have favorite quilts.In case you missed it - I showed how to make the blocks here. There were a few changes from the original plan. I switched to solid centers and decided to use all white for the backgrounds. I had planned on using a variety of pastels for the background, but intuition told me after a few blocks that it just wasn't going to be right. Intuition is never wrong!
I'm pretty pleased with the quilting. You may remember I decided to hand quilt the centers with perle cotton. It took a couple of attempts and some unstitching before I found the perfect design to use there. I love how it mimics the Dresden block itself.
I stippled the background after some straight line quilting in the sashing. I was stumped as to how to quilt the plates and started searching on flickr for ideas. I found this and this and it was super easy.
The backing is Soul Blossoms with a strip of the solids to make the length.
I also struggled with the binding. I spent at least an hour auditioning different fabrics, including solids and stripes. I flipped the backing over the edge and found it was perfect. And luckily I was able to use the excess backing for the binding.
I feel like this quilt and I have been on a long road together! But i've enjoyed every minute of it! I discovered this last night. You may think it's a polka dot at first glance, but I'm guessing it's a drop of red wine. (Caution - don't drink and quilt!). Not sure how to get that out. Hmm... maybe I'll just leave it there to remember the good times we've had together.