Double Wedding Rings : Ta Dah

A Wedding.  What else could I do for our friends wedding than a Double Wedding Ring Quilt!  I have always wanted to do one, so what better time.  A massive undertaking......would my skills be up to it?

A little bit of experimenting first, me thinks:

Would time allow for the small pieces - which I thought looked so much better..... well you know in for a penny in for a pound!  So armed with my double wedding ring template set and instructions from Marti Michell,  off I set.

Measure and wash all my fabric...

Cut...... now just to give you an idea of size - I think this is by far the largest number of pieces I have cut for one quilt - cut over a two week period at the end of February - 1164 blue segments alone!!

1164 pieces taken to my weekly quilt meet with the intention of sorting into piles within two hours.......really what was I thinking..... with two of us sorting it took just over three hours!!!  That night, with blue pieces spread across my friends house - her husband kindly ask me, with great sadness in his eye...... ARE YOU COMPLETELY MAD........I paused for only a moment - I had cut several perfectly lovely pieces of fabric into 1164 small piece - only to sew them together again in the coming weeks ...... YES OF COURSE I'M BLOODY MAD!!!!!!

And sew together I did, night after night.....

And press, and iron.....

And mark, and measure......

Until, near the end of March I was ready to lay out......

A decision to make now, on the inserts, and the background....

Another 194 each of the yellow inserts - twice!

Centres and melons - another 139 pieces!!!

Sew yellow insert on, number and pile together.... sew, sew and sew some more.....

May is now well and truly under way...... press, press and press some more, start sewing centres - while pressing, sewing, sewing and pressing....

Careful pinning of each section.....

Sewing of rows and columns.....

Now this bit was a bit odd, bind before layering together.....  so far the instructions had done me proud so who was I to argue..... Binding cut...

Beginning of June saw the quilting pattern being added...... just a little panic had set in now - only six weeks to go before the big day and the quilt was not together..... 

And, all three layers together..... I LOvE this bit of the quilt making - you finally get to see the quilt all laid out - something most satisfying at this stage of production.

Let quilting commence.... I worked out that each inner square was taking approx. 1/2 hour to complete. A decision was very quickly taken - a whole weekend of quilting was needed - time was going to quick...

The back of the binding was completed during my recent holiday....

With another weekend of quilting to complete the inner and outer circles the quilts was finally complete - washed and labelled...

Ta Dah.....

And finally, wrapped to give to its new owners.......

I have LOVED making this quilt..... I loved the colours, I loved the production, I loved the fact it completely stretched my skills, and most of all I loved the reason to make it - wishing you a wonderful life together A & S - and may the quilt keep you both warm forever!