Brett, the kids and I were blessed to be able to travel to their wedding and witness their sealing in the San Diego temple.
The bride and groom: Nasa and Randy
For their wedding gift I decided to make a double wedding ring quilt. I've always wanted to try one and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one done! I found out from Nasa, soon to be sister in law, that the wedding colors would be navy, coral and tan (for the burlap table runners).
I found a free Double Wedding Ring pattern by Free Spirit through extensive online search. I was a little surprised at how difficult it was to track down a pattern. To prove my point further I tried to share the link with you but it's not working anymore, it just goes straight to the Free Spirit Fabrics website, oh well. The was just for a wall hanging size but someone figured out the yardage requirement for a queen sized quilt so I went with that. Next I tracked down different prints I loved in the two colors and then I ordered some Essex linen, in linen to represent the tan, burlap.
I spent days and days piecing together the arches and honestly I dawdled about that part too much and was rushing it in the end. Sewing all the curves together was exhausting but exciting and empowering. It was looking so good as the arches became melons and then turned into rings and finally into a complete quilt top. I felt like a rock star getting that quilt top finished!
Here's a little something embarrassing about me but, I feel like we are close enough to share, don't judge me ;) I don't know what to call it, that I'm proud, or self absorbed or what but I really chafe at the idea of having someone else quilt my quilt for me. Yes it would have looked 100x's better than my beginners attempt but I really don't want to hand over all my hard work to the recipient and say, "I made this for you, except for all that beautiful quilting, someone else did that". So I took a lesson at my local quilt shop and then spent 5.5 hrs, one snowing Saturday, quilting this mammoth on their long arm machine. It's obviously done by a beginner but I wont apologize for that. I am proud of my work and I'm grateful I get to share it with the people I love.
So with out further ado, here is my first Double Wedding Ring quilt sewn and quilted by yours truly!
I had to recruit my husband and my dad to hold my quilt up for me. A queen size? Nope, fits quite nicely on my king sized bed :)
Here you can see what each medallion looks like. I didn't want stitching running over the arches so I had to 'jog' between each design. That meant 8+ hours of thread burying. I'm not sure I do that ever again...
When I started this quilt I did not set out to have scalloped edges. It was more of a, "well sure, look at that, this quilt top has scalloped edges, let's roll with that..." Haha, it all worked out in the end, as annoying as it was to bind, I think the scallops look gorgeous.
This shot is great because it shows a few of my favorite things. Love those zebras popping in everywhere! Also you can see that in the blue cornerstones I quilted little hearts for the newlyweds!
Remember this was supposed to be a queen sized quilt? Way, way bigger. I had to run out in the 11th hour and buy more backing.
Ah, how I love this quilt. It was so hard to let this one go...
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How do you feel about farming out your quilting?
Do you enjoy curved piecing?
Would you attempt a Double Wedding Ring quilt?
i have yet to try curved piecing, and so that would therefore create a maybe on a DWR quilt. i would likely beg you for your paper pieced version of it though, that's for sure.
ReplyDeletei am still on the fence about how i will have andrew's quilt done in the end, since ideally i would like it quilted with hidden mickeys but have yet to have time or ability to long arm it myself.
I'm thinking of doing our Disney memory quilt with Mickey heads. I don't think it'll be too difficult if you could just get long arming!
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