Centre is finished

The centre has been done. All applique has been stitched on in black blanket stitch and reactions have been excellent.
My quilting group christened the quilt : Rainbow Maze. 

I made a border with some of the left over Bali Pops, but I am disappointed in how it looks. 

There is going to be a 2" strip of background between the edges of the rings and the strip pieced border, but I still feel it won't look as I was hoping for.

What looks like a black strip, is in fact a dark navy.

It is back to the drawing board to find a better solution, I may even cut that strip piecing in half lengthwise to tone the clunkyness down somewhat. 

Centre of quilt together, flowers pinned on

Here is the main part of the quilt, borders will be added to this.

It is stitched, ready for the flowers.

I've pinned the flowers and leaves on, but I am not quite satisfied with the lay-out. I wanted to get away from the square design, by which I mean I started by added four sets of leaves. 

Next I pinned on 3 large flowers in the centre.

Now, how do you change a design of 4 to a design of 3?

I don't know yet.

I also think it needs another flower shape. 

I found the samples Victorian Textiles had sent me and tested out the various products. I just loved, loved, loved printfuse. You print your design, like the flower elements, on the printfuse with your printer. Cut and fuse to the design fabric  as per usual and you don't only have an iron-on patch, this patch sticks to the background temporarily and can be moved about. 

A pity I only had two sheets, I definitely will make sure I keep this product handy. 

Nearly assembled!

OK, I really hoped my top would be together, but I am starting to make mistakes and unpicking isn't much fun. 

I wasted a couple of hours trying to design a template for the plain centre circle, but in the end, it didn't seem totally accurate when I checked it with the other templates.
I went back to my original plan: use a finished ring as a template.

The interesting thing  ( or challenge, if you like) is that this is not a perfect circle, but has 4 straight sections where they are stitched to the squares.

In the end, it wasn't a problem. 

I probably have a couple of hours to go and the 9 rings will be together and  squared off ready for the appliqué!

And speaking of unpicking: don't take your frustration out on the fabric or the stitching, but unpick gently, tremove the bits of thread  and press fabric to bring it back to its original crispness. 

Good progress

Here are the elements pinned to my design wall. 

 OK, I am still pining for an on point design, but I underestimated the background fabrics required and I would have needed additional fabric. I really can't  afford the time it would set me back waiting for that, so it will be a straight design. 

At the moment I am waiting to hear from VT whether or not they will provide the templates to square off the rings before adding a border. 
This can be done with template cut pieces or I can simply appliqué the rings onto the borders. Either will work. I might even use the one-piece arc piece to cut fusible, trim the seam allowance off the rings and machine appliqué them as per usual, using a blanket stitch, same as I will use for the flowers I will appliqué. 

I like the idea that I use what is left over of the Bali Pops, either or both in the binding or maybe an extra border.  

Here is the first completed ring:

The project needs four of these, which will be rotated in the quilts as per the picture above.

I love scrap double wedding ring quilts  ( or any quilts for that matter) because of the visual movement they provide. They make your eye go around the surface. I hope the shop keepers and quilters also like it. 

I also enjoy the technicality of this design and it was always one of my favourite workshops, as people would come to the workshop full of doubts that they would be able to master what does look so complicated and then walk out confident that they too can stitch a Double Wedding Ring quilt. 

I used the Bali Pops in the order they came. I could have maybe created more of a colour wash effect, but I loved the look of the Pops as they were arranged and decided to go with that. I was two colours short, in other words, 2 of the colours are used in more than one colour way, but I challenge anyone to pick them!

I think tomorrow I have to work on the SASI newsletter, the Somerset Art Society, but hopefully I can do at least another ring...or even two....

New project

I am so excited to be creating a new Double Wedding Ring project for Victorian Textiles, to be ready in time for the Australian Quilt Market next month! No pressure ...
I have been working on the design for a while, but today the gorgeous Bali Pops  arrived: 2.5" strips to use for the arcs in beautiful rainbow colours  and Bali Snaps, 5" squares I will use for the flowers, plus the background, a colour called 'Dewdrop', soft hand dyed of blue  splotches and swirls on a white background. 

The idea is 3 x 3 rings, but the centre is just a plain circle for some appliqué, which of course I will do in my favourite machine trapunto.

Some arc pieces

Here are some of the arc pieces. This Bali 1895 fabric is so lovely and crisp, 

a pleasure to cut and sew. 

The Double Wedding Ring  will be cut using the super templates by Victorian Textiles.

Here I am cutting the Melon shapes: note the smaller cutting board, it allows me to turn it instead of having to turn the partly cut patch and maybe shift the fabric. 

Can you spot the difference between these two images?

On the top each ring consists of four arcs, each in a different colour group.

On the bottom, each ring repeats the same arc four times.

At the moment, I prefer the bottom one...