Dresden Plate from Butterfly Garden

I didn't really need another quilting project, but I did need something portable that I could work on when I was away from my sewing machine and had free time.  I just hate sitting doing nothing - whether is watching a TV show or movie (drives the DH crazy) or traveling in a car, or just sitting waiting on an appointment etc...

I've been intrigued with a couple of quilt blocks.  One is the Grandmother's Flower Garden and the other was the Dresden Plate.  I love that both of these are fairly old designs, made by our grandmothers and before.  I recently purchased a Layer Cake and Jelly Roll of the Kansas Troubles Butterfly Garden that was on special online and while I was at it I ordered the easy Dresden Plate ruler from http://missouriquiltco.com/shop/.

I got the order so quick - and when I did I just loved the fabric.  It is so soft and wonderful and the colors are just what I'm drawn to.  I just found out that the designer of this fabric lives only about an hour away from me!
Anyway - I couldn't wait to tear open the Layer Cake and see what I could do with it.

I cut each of the 40 pieces in 1/2 then one of those pieces in 1/2 again - ending up with 40 5"X10" pieces, and 80 5" square nickels.  Then I took each of the 5"X10" pieces and cut 2 7 1/2" Dresden plate blades  for 80 blades.   Today I'm putting the blades together and making 4 large plates.  I'm having so much fun!
Click on the pictures to make them larger. 

And now there are 4!  These went surprisingly fast for me.  I started at a landmark...on the above one it was the upper and lower light blade, then I just worked my way around chain sewing picking up the next piece as I went.  The background pieces are 20" square.

I haven't decided yet how I will put them together in a quilt, but I'm looking for a smaller Dresden plate that maybe doesn't have as many pieces to put between them and separate them out somehow.  I would welcome any suggestions or ideas.  I still have nickels and a Jelly Roll in this fabric to work with.