The Double Wedding Ring Quilt - Done

It is finished - and I couldn't be more pleased with how it has turned out.

First a little explanation about the recipients which will make some of the details about the quilt make more sense. The quilt is for my brother, Justin and has wife since last November, Amy. And yes, I realise that makes this a very late wedding present. Amy's blog documenting the planning of their wedding was called Polka Dots and Sunshine, she wore a dress with small dots on the overdress fabric and the flowers at the wedding were yellow. Justin's favourite colour is green. They married in a garden in the foothills of Perth and marked the aisle with handmade pinwheels from scrapbooking paper.

The quilt measures 55" by 65" and is 4 rings by 5 rings making the quilt a lap size. It is the size I had planned from the beginning to be used on the couch or at the end of the bed but if I had several more months I might have gone for a bed size as the piecing is time consuming and, at time tedious, but once I got the hand of it it turned out not to be so hard.

I didn't use a 'pattern' as such but cut everything using templates from Matilda's Own, the set I bought coming with a handy book detiling fabric requirements for different quilt sizes as well as some very detailed and helpul piecing directions and the template designs to square off the edges. The holes in the templates to mark seam intersections was also VERY helpful.

So to the fabric choices and placement. The intersecting squares bringing the rings together were the two colours that represtented Justin and Amy, the green and the yellow. The other prints in the rings included a number of spots as a nod to the wedding's 'shape' theme as well as some other prints to balance these out.

The backing fabric was chosen as a contrast to the front, stripes and spots but the print could have been a little overwhealing without being split. The double pinwheel blocks down the centre is reminicinet of the aisle at their wedding ceremony which was marked by homemade pinwheels made using scrapbook paper.

I echo quilted the rings on my machine. I love the way it looks but it took a lot longer than I thought and really took a lot out of my neck and shoulders. I enjoy quilting all my own quilts but the basic domestic machines certainly have their limits.

Of course it is labelled on the back - the quote is one that came to Amy when planning ceremony readings for the wedding but didn't feel is appropriate to include in the ceremony itself. And of course their names and the wedding date. On the way home with them tomorrow.

Other Posts about this quilt

A Project (with a capital P)

HandmadeRetro: Double Wedding Ring Progress (or procrastination)

HandmadeRetro: A deep breath....and start - The Double Wedding ...

Arc, Melons and Centres - The Double Wedding Ring quilt

A curvy Weekend

Quilting Underway....finally

...Travels in your local land

As I sat waiting for my flight home from Brisbane Friday night I realised that of the six states and two mainland territories in Australia I have now visited them all bar one state (Tasmania) and one territory (Northern Territory). Of the ones I have been to I've lived in three, and I feel pretty comfortable in the ACT, as I have visited lots.


As for the other two I've driven right across South Australia but not actually gone to Adelaide, or the Barossa Valley or any other the other "tourist" areas so while I might have seen more than most it still sort of feels that I haven't really been there. As for Queensland, I think I spent the majority of this week within one square kilometre in the centre of Brisbane plus the train trip to and from the airport.

Art in a Mall in Brisbane. The caption mentions pixels in photography but I think it looks like a random postage stamp quilt.  

There is certainly much, much more to see and many more places I could visit. I have been reminded of some family that lived on the next farm when I was young. Every few years they went on huge extended driving holidays, including once right up Cape York in far North Queensland. The theory, as I remember is being said, is that they wanted their children to see every state of Australia before they went overseas. I feel like I'm kind of close to that goal, yet further away.


What is it about us that travel to far off locations instead of around the corner? So tell me, where in your local land would you like to visit?

...English Paper Piecing

I've been away for a conference at work this week and bought a little hand sewing with me, in a pouch I made the night before I left.

This last minute sewing before I travel seems to becoming a semi-regular tradition!

I have run out of fabric so I have been playing with papers and coming up with some ideas for future projects!

I bought the Playing with Paper Pack 31 by Patchwork with Busy Fingers

...something for Nik

There is an occasionally repeated, misquoted movie line in our house that goes something like

‘Nik ‘aint doing nothing ‘til Nik get something for Nik, get me a hot chocolate, and some pie,... a piece of pecan *** pie!’

So because he is really quite helpful and he does put up with a lot of sewing and quilting time at 11pm Wednesday night Nik did get a WHOLE pecan pie!

Quilting Underway....finally

Quilting Underway....finally, a photo by HandmadeRetro on Flickr.

This picture is a little affected by perspective...but not by much. The throat on my machine is not huge so there is a lot of pulling and turning and tugging to get this design quilted with my walking foot but I am going to persist because I love the effect is is having.

...Sew Australia - A Bee Block Tutorial

My month in the Sew Australia bee has less snuck up on me, rather arrived with no smaller pile of things to do and little planning for the bee being done until recently. My thinking went something like this. I want a block (and a quilt) that is not the same as all the others (don't ask me to explain what I mean by same and others - I don't know). And I had fabric already chosen and bought so whatever I came up with had to be something that would suit, and feature, the novelty prints. The fabric is Circa 50 so I was thinking a 1950's design. Google couldn't help me with that but I did spy this quilt.


The description suggests that the block is called 'Stacked Hex' or 'Running Hex' but for the life of me I can't find the hexagon unit in it. If you can please tell me, it is driving me insane. But in the absence of such sight I drafted myself a block and will add the setting triangles between it and the sashing for a twin size quilt when they all return.


I'm calling the block 50's Crystal for a lack of knowledge as to the real name.  
***EDIT*** Lisa has pointed out that the finished block has six sides, and is therefore a hexagon. There might be some goemetry experts out there that would argue the case and point out the six sides are not equal in length but I think they would be nitpicking. Maybe I should be calling it a Stacked Hex block afterall.


Apologies for the dark, rubbish pictures. No matter what I do I can't seem to get a good picture at night and that is when I get to sew.
 50's Crystal Block Tutorial


For each block you will need
1x 6" square of dark print
2x 5" square of light print (I used a print and solid)
1x 4" square of light print cut on point.
I have described where I used the dark and light print - my sashing will be reasonably dark and that has impacted my placement but switching them would give an effect more like the inspiration quilt.


Construction
Step 1: Making the end units

 Place 5" Squares right sides together and draw a line corner to corner. Sew 1/4" each side of this line.

Cut along the drawn line, press seams to set and then press seam towards the print.


Trim these units to 4" square. Place your ruler with the 45 degree mark on the seam line ensuring the edge of the block extends beyond the 4" mark on your ruler.

Trim the two sides and then turn the block, line up with the 4" line again and the 45 degree line and trim the final two sides.


You will now have the 3 centre squares that are sewn into the block on point.

Step Two: The setting triangles
The 6" square will be cut into 4 triangles like you are cutting a sandwich.
First cut corner to corner diagonally.

And then cut the resulting triangle in half again. It helps to position the 45 degree line on the side and the ruler on the point to ensure your halves will be equal. I find cutting one and a time makes this more accurate.

 Lay out your setting triangles with the square units you made in the previous step. The blocks will be orientated vertically in the final quilt so please orientate the squares in this way when laying it out. The solid white triangles should be on the outside.

The triangles will extend 1/4" beyond the square on one side. Match the top corner (right angle corner) of the triangle with the corner of the square as shown in the picture above.

Sew a one triangle to each of the end squares and two to the middle square.

You will end up with three units as shown above.

Press to set all seams and then press seam allowances towards the setting triangles.

Step Three: Joining the units.
The last step is joining the three units.

Nest the seams as shown in the picture above and pin on the seamline. Your prints and whites will be right sides together as shown in the picture above as well.
You want the seams to match and that 1/4" tag at each end of the seam as shown below.

Sew both joining seams and...

You're done!

There are a lot of pictures in this post spelling out what might seems to be really basic steps but they do help make a precise block. The blocks actually don't take that long to make either but I think they will look pretty effective on mass!

...a hexagonal baby quilt

I have wanted to make this quilt for age. It still isn't quite finished, I have to choose some fabric for the setting diamonds but I am so excited about it I couldn't wait to blog about it.

The pattern is one designed and originally sewn by Malka from A Stitch in Dye. As I recall it was made for Quilt Market during the second half of last year. I am not sure if it was on display at all but the pattern was definitely featured in the magazine. I thought there was no chance I would ever get my hands on the pattern and then I happened to come across the magazine on some obscure online quilt store in Canberra some time later.

It has taken a few more months for me to find the perfect recipient for the finished quilt. Now I have one in mind I'm finally making it.

The large centre flower garden unit is made of six hexagons, each made of the irregular shaped units cut from string pieced units. The three units that make the hexagon, and the hexagons themselves are all joined with "Y" seams that I had not sewn before.

I was really happy with how they all turned out and with some careful marking they were not as difficult to get accurate as I had feared. The plan is to source this setting diamond fabric this week and get this basted and quilted soon...before the recipient is born!