Double Wedding Ring Quilt Update

So I started a ‘little’ project back in early 2012.  I worked bit by bit on it until Ellie’s arrival in 2013.  After that it lived in a box under the rocking chair in my bedroom, then upgraded to the closet when we moved.

Then the ladies at our new church started a sewing group, just a couple of hours once a month for most of the past two years.

Today, 13+ years in, the piecing is finished.  The ‘sandwich’ is made!

Wonder how long it will take to quilt it….

Here are those old posts, for which I’m thankful to be able to pull dates and memories from!

https://notesfromamama.blogspot.com/2012/01/glutton-for-punishment.html?m=1

https://notesfromamama.blogspot.com/2012/02/sewing-sewing-sewing.html?m=1

Part XIV: Waiting (present day)

 We are still waiting, waiting, waiting.  It turns out that our deed was filed incorrectly, so that needs to be remedied.

I’m trying to just wait to see what God has planned.  We’ll see if we are actually moving out there or not!

In the meantime, I started a whole cloth quilt.  That should keep me busy for a bit!

I purchased the tree template from an artist on Etsy and the flower border from a quilt shop.  I modified the flower border to fit the corners of my 45* turned square.  The fabric is 6 yards of 108” wide cotton (making both the front and back) with a wool batting.  The drawing was completed with an erasable fabric pen.  Absolutely worth it to get the one with the built in eraser to make changes as I went, since most of the lines will come out at the very end by soaking, and it would have been challenging to remove small errors and my  guide lines used for setting up the different sections—seen in the template picture below—which were to help with setting up, but not to be quilted.

Template

Sketched

Border detail

One of those modified corners

Partially quilted tree

October Quilt Update

I had taken a bit of a break from my quilt during the summer months, but my fingers have been busy again.

Well, I've got all the basic arcs made,

A whole slew of them!

Up next, I have to put end pieces on half of them, so they can form these 'melon' shapes.

Maybe Kate won't need to finish it, after all.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

I got the 'other' quilt pieced last week.

Now I just have to find the time to quilt it. I tried sewing after the kids went to bed the other night, but they didn't sleep until after I quit. Once we get through the busy-ness of the first part of the week hopefully I can work it in between schooling and all.

As for my Double Wedding Ring quilt...it's going slowly. I can work on it at times that I can't get to my sewing machine, so it has seen some progress despite my new project.

Here's the box where I keep my pieces that are all stitched and waiting for the next step.

I have over 200 of the pink pieces joined to the blue pieces, so hopefully the next week will see that finished. Then I get to sew my pink/blues to my yellow/greens.

Quilt Update

Just a quick update on the quilt.

336...I have sewn 336 pieces of yellow fabric to 336 pieces of green fabric. I have made 672 knots and somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,000 stitches (yeah, I didn't count all of those)!

At a pace of about 12 seams per hour...that's about 32 hours, including the cutting time.

All for this teeny tiny pile.

Next up? Ironing, cutting, and then sewing 336 pieces of pink fabric to 336 pieces of blue fabric!

Maybe that quilt on Etsy wasn't over priced at three grand. But honestly, I am enjoying keeping my hands busy and I can't wait to see the thing put together.

A Glutton for Punishment

There is a quilt pattern that I have loved for many, many years. Unfortunately, it is one of the most difficult quilt patterns to complete.

The Double Wedding Ring quilt for a full/queen sized bed has 2573 pieces (in 9 fabric patterns and 5 shapes)! I don't have one to take a picture of, but if you google the images there are some pretty ones out there. The one I'm working on will be subtle. So far I have a light green and a light yellow to work with. I will either stick with variations of those two colors or incorporate some other pastels in the rings. The background will be white. I plan the places where the rings meet to be a white print and a green solid, though that may change depending on how long it takes me to get to that part and what my tastes are then!

I asked for the rotary cutter templates for Christmas, so I have cut the first two sets of fabric (672 pieces).

This is 336 pieces (in stacks) of pretty green wedges. Also pictured are some of my lovely templates, which allowed me to cut that set of pieces in 60-90 minutes. Sure beats the scissors!

I decided this will probably be a multi-year project, so I've started with purchasing the fabrics as I need them or find them on sale, rather than one big purchase at the fabric store. I'm hand stitching, which takes a lot longer, but allows me to stitch while I'm with the littles (an important thing for me at their ages, rather than being up in my room with the sewing machine, which I can do for short little projects, but not something this time consuming).

I went to Etsy the other day and I searched for double wedding ring quilts. The ones that fit large beds and are hand stitched are running $600-$3500! I guess that lets me know the time commitment I'm getting into.

I have 12 seams stitched so far...and more seams than I would care to count left to go. I'll post again when I get on to a new interesting step or finish up something worth showing. Maybe I'll finish it before Nate goes off to college anyway!

Nine Patch Quilt Guide: Quilting

Lay your backing material, cut a smidge larger than your finished quilt top, face down.

Next top this with the batting.

Then place your pieced quilt top (face up) on top. Be very careful that all of these pieces are perfectly flat. This helps to keep your quilt from puckering.

You then pin your quilt with quilting pins--huge safety pins that can pass through the three layers easily.

You can machine quilt (long straight lines are easiest, but you can get as fancy as you imagination allows

or that your machine will do for you),

followed by knotting the loose ends: sew the loose threads through to the back and knot with it's match on the back side.

Alternatively, you can knot the quilt. To do this, thread your hand stitching needle with several pieces of embroidery floss (not standard thread) in a coordinating color. Tie a knot on the top of the quilt and trim it, allowing an inch and a half of the floss to remain, as decoration and to keep the knot taut.

The very last step is to finish those edges.

The first option is to use bias tape (choose wide double folded tape in a color that coodinates with your quilt). Cut all of the edges of the three layered quilt to be exactly the same. Turn the end of the tape under to cover the raw edge. Fold the tape over the edge of the quilt and pin it with straight pins. When you get to the end of one piece of tape, just repeat the steps.

At corners, tuck the tape to help it form the turn. A simple straight stitch will secure the tape and close up your edges.

The other way to handle this it to fold the backing fabric over the batting

and then fold the front of the quilt in.

Again, use straight pins to hold it in place, then stitch over the edges with a machine or by hand.

Finished!

Nine Patch Quilt Guide: Piecing

This is the second in the series of three posts in making a Nine Patch Quilt:

(click here for planning)

Stitch with the right (pretty sides together).

(Stitching 2 three square tall strips)

I piece the nine patches in strips of three blocks and then piece the three strips together, making a 9 patch block.

After all my blocks are made, I put all of the blocks in piles according to the columns in my plan.

I make each column.

Then, I piece each strip together to make up the widths of the quilt.

The final part of the quilt top is to add the border (which is totally optional).

After the top is finished, be sure to trim up all the loose threads and be sure all the strips are fully attached.

Nine Patch Quilt Guide: Planning

Making quilt can be as simple or complicated as you want. This is a simple 9 patch.

First choose the size of the quilt you wish to make--you can measure the bed you wish to cover, remember to allow if you want to tuck it in.

The next step is to plan the quilt. For example, will a border take up part of the widths or are your squares going to the edge? Will you use biased tape or do you intend to turn the edges under (requiring a few extra inches) to make the edges?

Let's say we're making a 35" square baby quilt. There will be 12 nine patch blocks and 13 solid blocks (some of mine were printed marked 'r' and others where white, hence the markings on my paper). I decided on one 5" border, rather than the two I originally had planned.

I sketch it out on quadrille paper so I can decide upon a pattern.

I decide my finished squares will be 5". I add 1/4" per side (not per width or height), so I will cut 5 1/2" squares. For my 9 patch blocks, I divide 5 (from the size of my finished squares) by 3 (as the patch will be 3 blocks wide by three blocks high) and then add 1/4" per side, for 2 1/16" square. (These sizes are totally arbitrary, just pick the size that works for you--smaller squares require more sewing, but allow for smaller pieces of fabric and more designs.)

large block = x = 5" squared

block for 9 patch = y = x/3" squared + .25" squared + .25" squared

And maybe you thought you'd never have any use at all for basic algebra and geometry after high school!

** I'll post about more steps next week! **

Dragonfly Quilt

I love, love, love making baby quilts. They are so fun. They go together quickly (since they are small), they are easier to move around on the machine to quilt (since they are small), and they are cute because of the subject (oh, and because they are small).

I had a friend decided to decorate her nursery in dragonflies, so I went shopping back in February before I got sick. I finally got my gumption back and got it mailed off last week--the baby is due in a couple of weeks, so I barely made it in time. Whew!

So here is Baby Samuel's quilt:

The center piece is embroidered and the yellow material has dragonflies in the print.

Nate's Room

Nate has a room all to himself, finally. At first he roomed in with us, allowing the girls to keep their rooms. Then for awhile he slept in the kitchen. Finally he got to share Gabby's room. She slept in a room with Kate at night, but still napped in there during the day, so the bed is finally free of pretty pink flowers.


I opted to top the iron bed (the frame, not the mattress, is made of iron) with a plaid comforter that we had on hand for now and cover it with a Noah's ark quilt I made several years back.


The Quilt


Nate is still sleeping in a pack and play. Our crib has a recall on it and with the move we didn't file for the replacement part--it's on my crazy long to-do list. This isn't the same pack and play he had been sleeping in though. It was a hand-me-down and evidently wasn't meant to make it to it's ten year birthday (which it would have reached this fall). One of the screws broke off inside when we were visiting Justin's parents in Ohio this month, so we got the only available pack and play in their local Wal-Mart (it's a small town!).



He has a good sized closet, holding the crib parts for right now and not a whole lot else. I'm looking forward to getting it more organized once we can set the crib up. And of course there is the obligatory changing table and diaper pail. I'm glad to have them on the first floor again. We were mostly changing him on the floor because I didn't like carrying him up and down the stairs and leaving the girls to their own devices for that long.


n

Checking it Off

I've been busy trying to get things checked off my to-do list.

I went and bought some boy clothes at Carter's yesterday--I caught some good sales and got all this for about $35.

Don't get too attached though because it may all be returned for pink in a few weeks!

I also was able to finish up baby P's quilt. The girls and I mailed it off today.

I loved the colors for something different for a little girl. With two older sisters I figured they were probably swimming in pink, so I did something a little different for this little girl.