With the weather having been awful I have been playing in my sewing room. I have settled on a design for the quilt I am going to enter into competition in August and it is called a Double Wedding Ring (if you google that you can see all sorts of fabulous quilts!) I thought I might take you through the steps of making my very first DWR block using up some of my scraps but which has led me to the colours I want to use in the real thing. Firstly I paper-pieced the arcs which means stitching the pieces of fabric to a paper template and then trimming them to fit.It is a very accurate form of patchwork.For each block there are 8 arcs,each with 8 colours and 4 of those arcs have a 9th colour in a high contrast colour. Paper-pieced arcs trimmed and ready ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) Next step was to decide on the colour of the background fabric: white or cream Auditioning the background fabric ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) What a difference adding the 9th colour makes to the impact! Auditioning the background fabric with end blocks ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) Once the background fabrics had been cut to shape (I chose the white) it helps to lay out the blocks so that you can work in a logical order. Pieces laid out ready to join ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) Then it is just a case of joining the pieces together,slowly and carefully First step of the joining process ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) Until the whole block is completed. Completed Double Wedding Ring block ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ). The competition quilt will probably be 4 rings across by 5 rings down if I haven't lost the will to live after all those arcs to piece Having finished the DWR I came across another block that I have been itching to try and this is called a flying goose(no idea why).it is very versatile in it's use and there are different ways of constructing them.The pattern I chose for my first attempt was one I purchased from Craftsy and is called Geese in a Circle.It is paper-pieced in the same way as the DWR arcs. I chose my colours and put the first set on a black background (flying at night) Night Geese in a circle ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) It was such fun that I then put the same colours on a white background (flying during the day) and was amazed at how different it looked. Day Geese in a circle ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) I intend to put both of the blocks together in a wall hanging. Night and Day together ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) but felt that it needed something else so I then followed a tutorial on you-tube to make traditionally pieced units. Flying geese units ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden ) which I may or may not use like this when I've had more time to mull over about what I want to do to finish the hanging.i shall come back to it when the DWR is nearer completion. Trial layout for wall hanging ( photo / image / picture from Kiasmum's Garden )
As soon as I saw the title of your post, I knew you were quilting! The double wedding ring is such a lovely pattern, but only to be pieced by an experienced quilter like you. I love your color selections and the white background is the perfect choice. You are a shoo-in for winning the competition! The Flying Geese--absolutely wonderful with the layout and colors. Please let us see the finished product. I'm still working on quilting out the Drunkard's Path, also known as Road to Heaven in teetotalling spots! In Texas the window of opportunity to have a heavy quilt on your lap (I hoop quilt) is brief. Two winters and still quilting!
