Double Wedding Ring Quilt

This is a 'planned' double wedding ring quilt. The centers and melon pieces of the rings are to be of a tone-on-tone cream fabric. I have the word 'planned' in quotation marks because it will be - sort of - planned, but not from start to finish. The basic colors will be greens and purples, with some accents of blue and rose. I started out thinking I wanted to do a scrappy quilt, but when I was reading Sharlene Jorgenson's book with templates (available from Quilting from the Heartland), I liked the idea of creating one where the colors radiated outward. I didn't want the quilt to only have a couple of fabrics, though, still wanting some variety, if not a scrappy look.

For my mom & dad... in different colors (I'm thinking a background of ecru, with plum and olive colored fabrics for the rings...

Pattern photo

Started April 1, 2006, these are some of the pieces cut and placed on my flannel design wall.

April 7, 2006: some piecing has begun

April 17, 2006 : more pieces and piecing

September 22, 2006 : a little farther along - stacks of pieces in order (at least in an order that makes sense to me) and some of the melons on the wall - looking a little more like double wedding ring quilt pieces...but not completely joined up.

November 4, 2006 : top row of circles almost completed (6 of 7), though they are not attached to one another yet.

December 30, 2006: top two rows of circles completed, but the rows are not yet joined to each other. I've also started working on row 3!

May 18, 2007: The top 3 rows are pieced (but not to each other at this point), and I've started working on the 4th. The melon pieces of the 4th are pieced, but I have not yet started connecting them.

November 10, 2007: I took off three days (including my birthday), just to play with quilts. I really wanted to work on the double wedding ring, because this time off would give me a great opportunity for the focus this quilt requires. Although I didn't finish assembling the quilt top this long weekend, I made some great progress, piecing rows 5-7 and the melon pieces for row 8. I still haven't pieced any of the rows to each other, but I look forward to starting that soon.

November 25, 2007: It has been a really productive Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I worked on a couple of different quilts, including the DWR. I finished piecing row 8 together, and I finally got to start piecing the rows to each other. Piecing the rows to each other is not going as quickly or easily as I had thought it might be, because it is a two-step process. First the melon pieces must be pieced to the center pieces. Once all those are done, then you piece the connecting diamonds to each other. Although I've learned a lot with this quilt, and I love the colors and the way it looks, I probably won't make another one. The construction of this quilt makes the Drunkard's Path one I did a couple of years ago seem like a simple nine-patch.

Close-up of connecting diamonds

Rows 6-8 pieced to one another (I started at the bottom and am working my way up this quilt - I enjoy doing things backwards )

And here is the quilt top finished (December 21, 2007) - now to press, layer, baste, and quilt it!

Here's the quilting pattern I'm using - I've modified the fleur de lis quilt template and took some lines out. I like how it looks a little like a flower. I'm also quilting about a quarter inch from the seams in the melon pieces.

January 6, 2008 - approximately 15 "blocks" (of 56) quilted so far.

July 24, 2008 - I've finally finished hand-quilting the quilt, and I now face the scary task of curved binding.