Double Wedding Ring Quilt Pieced!

This weekend I finally finished piecing the Double Wedding Ring Quilt. And after ten months of working on this diabolical quilt pattern, I feel like it should be . . . bigger. According to John Flynn's instructions this quilt with the 18 inch rings set four across and five down will finish at 54 1/2 inches by 66 3/4 inches. I don't know what quilt he is talking about; the effort I put into this should result in a quilt 120 x 140 inches at least! : ) Here are some close ups:

These aren't the best photos - they were taken last night on my kitchen floor. (You can enlarge them by clicking on them.) But I will say that the quilt came out as envisioned. I wanted the arcs to be black and white, but not too black - I wanted the black squares to stand out from the arc.

I learned a lot on this quilt. Curved piecing for one. I was nearly paralyzed when it came to putting the rings into rows and then sewing the rows together because I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it perfectly. But I finally decided done was better than perfect, and it was time to just do it. It's not perfect, but my confidence has grown just by the fact I was able to get this quilt put together - I feel like I could sew any quilt pattern after this.

I'm glad I got this together before year end. Piecing this quilt was one of my goals for 2009, and I didn't want 2010 to find me still piecing away. I want new goals for 2010!

Now turning my attention to Christmas projects . . . I don't mean to alarm you, but Christmas is about four weeks away!!!

I Got A Present!

My friend Loy made me this necklace and sent it to me week before last. I found the rock at St. Bee's Beach in northwest England, where we visited in May of 2007. The photo doesn't do the necklace or the rock justice - the smooth rock, right from the Irish Sea, is a deep, smooth green color, and Loy drilled a hole in it and suspended it from the copper thingy. She did a fabulous job, and you can read about her work here. (Note: Loy's real name is Laura, but Miss Eileen named her Loy when they were roommates in college, so there's nothing she can do about that.) Currently, Loy is teaching a beading workshop, and is having a big sale in November. (If you are interested in her incredible stuff, I can hook you up - drop me an email or leave a comment.)

Photos I took while at St. Bee's Beach. First the young lovers: Doggies are everywhere!

Really beautiful scenery, and the approximate area where my stone was lying when I found it:

There were people actually swimming in the incredibly cold ocean when we were there. It was sunny, but NOT warm:

The Double Wedding Ring Update: I have all the blocks sewed together in rows. Now I need to join the rows. This isn't as simple as it looks. Apparently in order to always sew with the white part of the block on top, one has to sew on the seam for a while, and then flip the whole business over and sew on the other side for a while. At least this is what is explained in the directions. I need some uninterrupted sewing time to figure it out.

To take a break from all that, I am making a Heartstrings quilt, as mentioned in a previous post. I have half of the blocks DONE. It is such an easy block to make, particularly in comparison to the DWRQ. One thing that has come in handy is the rotating cutting mat I got to make the DWRQ. It makes life so much easier and I am using it on the Heartstrings quilt as well.

You start off with a block that looks like this:

You trim a side and then rotate the mat for each side like so:

And your finished block looks like this:

Why didn't I get one of these years ago???

Parting Shot: Half of the Heartstrings are blocks done. I'm loving this!

Sewing ADD

My 30 minutes a day is paying off! For the past week, sewing 30 minutes a day on the DWRQ has allowed me to finish the nine remaining "footballs" and get one row sewed together! Wooo-hoo! Obviously, such industry must be rewarded, and what better reward than to irrationally begin a new quilt???? My motivation for getting the DWRQ pieced is so I can start one of Mary's Heartstrings quilt. So against better judgment, I did. These are the first 8 blocks I made this past weekend. They aren't sewn together, but I laid them out so I could see how they will look. My intent is to make a man's quilt, so I made the center strips all brown. In order to set the brown strips off, however, I added the red strips down each side of the brown. You can see a close up here:

I cut the brown strip 2 inches wide and the red strips 1 inch wide. So the red strips finish at 1/2 inch wide. (I saw this variation on Mary's blog by one of her readers, but now I can't locate the post where Mary showed it off.) The rest of the fabrics are what I would consider "manly" fabrics. I am using outdoorsy prints, civil war reproductions, and at least five castoff shirts given to me by my (boy)friend who was getting rid of them anyway. One of the fabrics comes from his old welding coveralls. He had used duct tape to cover the rips in the knees, and the only usable part of the coveralls was the back, but I got a few good strips out of them! I'm having a lot of fun with this quilt and the easy block is fun and quick compared to the DWRQ.

In other fun news, I found my mother's wedding dress! Well, not really. My grandmother made my mother's wedding dress when my parents got married in 1962. I remember the dress when I was child; my mother kept it in a gray box wrapped with a couple of pastel ribbons. I used to open it as a girl and look at it. I thought it was the most beautiful dress ever. It was in two pieces: a satin underdress that was strapless, and a lace overdress, with a bateau neckline, long sleeves, and basque waist. Unfortunately, in our last move before my father retired from the Army, the dress was lost. I was so disappointed. I loved that dress. About a dozen years later, my grandmother died, and all of her sewing supplies, including her patterns were sold or given away.

I didn't start sewing until 2003, and since that time I have been on the lookout for the pattern that was used to make Mother's wedding dress. I had always hoped that if I got married, I could be married in the same dress. With the internet and the explosion of interest in vintage patterns, this search has allowed me to waste, I mean, enjoy, hours of my time looking at vintage wedding dress patterns.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was on Erin's Dress-A-Day blog where she linked to a Wiki site of bridal patterns. (It's her September 8th post.) Something told me that my grandmother would have likely used a Simplicity pattern. I don't know why I felt that, but I did, so I started with the Simplicity patterns, and after about a half dozen clicks, there it was:

Here's a better photo that I shamelessly stole:

I knew this was it; right down to the basque waist. I was further convinced when I found out that the pattern was published in 1962. Here's a close up of version 1 which was used to make my mother's dress:

My grandmother also used the pattern to make all three bridesmaids dresses, in yellow, as I remember. I emailed the photo to my mother, who said, "Yep, that's it." Here's a photo of the dress worn by my mother on her wedding day:

Unfortunately, you can't see the waist very well in the photo. But dig the pointy sleeves at the wrists! I love it. This photo is of my parents at the Baha'i wedding at my grandparent's house, so Daddy is wearing a suit and Mother isn't wearing her veil. Later that day, they had the Christian church wedding, where Daddy wore his dress blues, while Mother did wear her veil. (Also made by her mother.)

Now armed with the pattern number, I just googled it, found two of the patterns for sale, one of which was in my size. I ordered it pronto and I am now the proud owner of the pattern for this great dress. Rest assured, I'm in no danger of getting married, but if I do, I have the pattern for it!!!!

I'm thinking that my grandmother would be vastly amused that the pattern she paid 65 cents for in 1962 is worth $ 40.00 in 2009.

Where I Have Been

I took last Friday off and headed north to the Philadelphia Quilt Show with my friends, Eileen and Loy. Unfortunately, the Crab Dress did not go due to weather/time/ironing concerns. It's complicated.

The three of us really enjoyed the Show. There was an international component this year, and it was fascinating to see quilts from Japan, Australia, and Ireland. The Japanese quilts were of such exquisite workmanship, it was hard to really comprehend. And there was collection of quilts made in the US specially during WWI and WWII which was wonderful. It became clear to me as I walked amongst the hundreds of quilts that I am simply drawn to the more traditional quilt patterns, rather than the contemporary styles these days.

Of course, there were plenty of vendors as well. I wish I could say I showed restraint, but I can only say that in quantity of yards purchased. There was no restraint in the amount of dollars spent. Because I found THE most gorgeous piece of fabric ever. It is a cashmere/mink blend in black: Of course, the photo doesn't do it justice, especially since it is so difficult to photograph black. But it is so soft and supple, it can slip through the proverbial ring. It came from one vendor booth selling luxury fabrics from Italy and I fondled every bit of it. This cashmere/mink is the most expensive fabric I have ever bought and will become a skirt for me this winter, lined in silk. The fact that I only bought a scant yard, and nothing else took a supreme act of self control. Of course, the bank account balance helped me in that regard.

As for quilt fabric, I bought this: Some was bought at the quilt show, some was at a LQS near Loy's home during the weekend. I especially love the bottom-most fabric which is called "Scarsbough Fair" by Windham Fabrics. I am planning one of Mary's Heartstrings quilts in my head with all this yummy stuff, so I am motivated to get the DWRQ done.

Speaking of which, I have all 20 quilt blocks of the DWRQ done!

Of course, that isn't all. I still need to make 9 "footballs" to complete the blocks that will go around the outer-most edges. I wanted to join the 20 blocks first, and then sew in the extra "footballs", but my rational mind said that trying to sew those footballs on when all the rows were sewn and joined was just an opportunity to stretch those biased edges. And we don't want that.

So I am dutifully making those footballs. Here is my progress:

I so want to get going on the Heartstrings quilt that I have adopted Summerset's idea of "30 minutes a day" to get this DWRQ done. I work on it 30 minutes a day, and then I stop. I am amazed to find out how much I can get done in just 30 minutes on a quilt. Last night I had a date, so I came home from work at lunch and did my 30 minutes. I am committed. Or should be committed. Whatever. It's working for me.

Parting Shot: When I flew home from Philadelphia on Sunday, I found that someone had spruced up my flower garden bed by putting in new scalloped border blocks. Which replaced the old icky two-by-four which had been there for at least a dozen years. I owe him a homecooked meal!

Working on Posting What I'm Sewing

I finished my bed quilt - look, Siobhan, no borders!

As usual, Susan Caldwell at Quilting Around the Block did an awesome job with the pantograph. I can't remember what it is called, but here is a shot of the muslim backing show the pantograph: I love it! Here is a shot of the front:

This quilt ended up finishing at 88 inches x 88 inches and I thought this was a perfect time to try Judy's binding video tutorial and sew the binding on completely by machine. The whole purpose of this quilt was to make it simply and get it on the bed because I loved the fabrics so much and they matched perfectly with my bedroom decor (which I can't take credit for - the woman who owned the house before me picked the wall paper, the drapes, and the carpeting and she did a masterful job!).

Judy's tutorial is great, and she makes it look easy. She does stress that the success of this method lies in using really sharp pins. I used the sharpest I had which were silk pins. They were key to making sure the binding did not move while sewing it down from the front. I didn't quite get the nice corners Judy did:

Although my corners look fine from the front:

I sewed one side and one corner at a time, so I had four chances to improve. At first, I folded the binding over a little too much and this resulted in a little "lip" on the back:

But then I improved:

And I admit that her method looks awesome from the front! In most places you would never know from the front that the binding was sewn by machine and not by hand:

Now my stitching isn't perfect, but this is my quilt to go on my bed, so there will be no quilt police entering my house to inspect the quality of my work. I'm so pleased with this because doing it this way probably only took me one-third of the time if I had done it by hand. I'm not a big fan of handwork, and sewing bindings down by hand was really the only handwork I ever did - but all that has changed now. I will probably use this method from now on, unless the quilt is an extra-special one.

Then I did something I have never done to a quilt that I have made (except for my first one) - I washed it. I decided that it would have to be washed at some time in the future, and there was no time like the present. VickiW assured me that she simply puts it in the washer and then in the dryer, no problem. And she was right; it came out soft and crinkly. I immediately put it on the bed and I'm laying under it now as I type!

One thing I did want to mention: when I was initially sewing the binding onto the front of the quilt, I tried Judy's method of moving the needle all the way to the right needle position and using the edge of the walking foot as my guide. The advantage to this was that way more of the quilt was under the walking foot and thus, the quilt was pulled along under the foot with a lot more force, making the whole process much easier. Wish I had been doing this all along.

Parting Shot: Two more blocks of the Double Wedding Ring Quilt got done this weekend. Fourteen done, six more to go!

Quilting ADD

After weeks away, it was good to get back to a whole day of sewing. I hit the Double Wedding Ring Quilt pretty hard; I got two more blocks done, plus I was able to get more arcs made in an assembly-line fashion, so I am hopeful that the second 10 blocks will go more quickly than the first 10. I also made some binding for another quilt needing to go to the machine quilter's:

It had been so long since I had made a block, I actually had to refer back to the instruction book. But all went well; I didn't even have to unsew and resew on these two new blocks. But, I have decided that the Double Wedding Ring pattern was invented by a diabolical mind - someone who was clearly deranged and had servants, so she had a lot of time on her hands. Mrs. Rochester comes to mind. I'm not certain I would make another one, even if I got married. But I should be careful about saying I would never do something. We all know that the minute you say, "I would never do that" or "I would never do that again", twelve months from now you'll be making two of them. So I'll keep my mouth shut.

For whatever reason, 2009 is a year where I am more interested in quilts than clothing. Which is a real change for me. I just keep coming up with more ideas for what I want to make next. But I am holding firm to the notion that I can't start anything new until at least all the blocks for the DWRQ are DONE. I've decided that I can look at new patterns; I can look at new fabric (via internet, catalogue, LQS, or my stash); I can even calculate yardage and buy new fabric. I just can't cut into it until I've got 20 DWR blocks. Here is fabric I pulled from the stash just to daydream:
I'm hoping that limiting any new starts will spur me towards completion soon!

Here is some exciting news: I got an antique sewing machine from my friends, Cliff and Joyce!

They gave me a treadle machine made by the Free Sewing Machine Co.:

Joyce bought this machine in 1977 for $ 36 when she lived in Massachusetts. She even sewed on it. Note the treadle - no electrical power necessary. It is way cool, and I read up on the Free Sewing Machine Co. here. Based upon what I read, this machine was probably made somewhere between 1890 and 1925. I have no idea. Here's a better shot:

Here is the cable that turned the wheel when you worked the treadle - it's broken now - when Joyce used it, it was held together with a staple. I'll probably need a new one.

It has the original manual, and what looks like the original oil. : )

Here are some of the accessories:

Here are things that were in the drawers. The glass jar contains needles. I don't know what the other two things are or what they are for.

A better shot of the manual - I need to photocopy it before it complete disintegrates:

Here are some action shots showing how the machine stores itself in the cabinet when you close it up:

All closed up:

I really want to get this working again; the machine is in some serious need of cleaning and oiling (and I thought getting my Bernina serviced only once every 3 years was pushing it). Fortunately, that is what the internet is for; I'll do some research on restoration or anyone who could do the restoration. I really appreciate this gift from Cliff and Joyce - they are wonderful friends and I am so thrilled they thought of me. They even delivered!

No Parting Shot today, but I wanted to share that VickiW now has an Etsy shop. Now all those wonderful fabrics she creates and dyes can be yours! Stop by her blog and her shop and see what you can order up. For those of you who are stash busting, anything you buy from Vicki doesn't count - because it is handmade!

Progress is Being Made

I haven't posted about the Double Wedding Ring Quilt lately, but progress is being made; I have finished half of the blocks. Woo-hoo! Here are 5 "A" blocks and and 5 "B" blocks:
I photographed them on my kitchen floor due to gusty winds outside on this beautiful day. Which seems to always be the case, except when it is raining. When I started blogging, I had no idea how many days of the year are unsuitable for outside photography of my sewing projects. But I know now. Thus, the inside photography. But you can see the nearest right block is still experiencing wind: that is from the refrigerator kicking on and blowing on it!

Having completed half the blocks needed for the DWRQ, I decided to take a break and work on my other goal for the year: a quilt for my bed. I already had a bunch of fat quarters, mostly from the "Freshcut" collection by Heather Bailey from Free Spirit fabrics that perfectly matched my bedroom decor. I wanted a pattern that was easy, fast, but not so simple that I would become bored. I search high and low at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show, and I considered using the Strip Gift Quilt Pattern, but in the end I used a Kaffe Fassett design from one of his books, which I believe was this one.

Kaffe Fassett's designs are good for fabric collections because they usually don't rely on contrast, so this was perfect. I can't remember the name of this quilt he designed as the pattern was so simple, I didn't even buy the book. (Sorry, Mr. Fassett.) Here are some of the blocks laid out, again, on the kitchen floor:


They aren't sewn together yet, and these aren't all the blocks. I need a bigger surface to lay them all out to make sure I have them arranged the way I like. The finished quilt will end up 88 x 88 inches, so I may have to lay down a sheet in the driveway tomorrow (if the wind would quit blowing) and arrange the blocks on it. I have no floor space in my house big enough for this quilt.

I did modify the quilt a bit so as to use fat quarters to make this quilt. For example, the middle block was supposed to be 19 1/2 inches square with a 2 inch border. My fat quarter couldn't be 19 1/2 inches square, so I cut it 17 1/2 inches and added a 3 inch border.


I also discovered that one fat quarter can make two blocks: 1 "A" block and 1 "B" block (the ones with the border). So I needed 31 fat quarters to make this quilt, plus some yardage for the border for the big block, which I will also use for the binding. Good news about this quilt top: no big borders! Just the big block, the "A" blocks, and the "B" blocks. All I have left to do is arrange the blocks, sew them into rows, sew the rows together, and get it to the machine quilter. I plan on asking for heavy quilting on this quilt: the pattern is so easy and basic that you need interesting quilting to make it attractive. Can't wait to get this on the bed!

Parting Shot: Darned refrigerator kept blowing on my blocks!