DWR Quilt Update - Milestone Reached!

I got all my Double Wedding Ring blocks sewn together!  I know, I can hardly believe it either!  Mr. and Miss Main Street are acting as quilt holders in the photo below.

 

 

At this point the quilt top is about 75" square, made up of 36 blocks ("clamshells") with some additional partial blocks ("melons") to finish the edges.  But this is not the finished flimsy; I have some borders to add.

 

The photo below is a close-up, after ironing.  Yes, I finally got to put an iron to this thing and it sure looks a lot better for it.



 

 

Sewing the blocks together is the most time consuming part of making this design.  In most quilts with square blocks, you sew the blocks together in rows (with or without sashing) then sew the rows together with one long seam. 

 

Not so in making this Double Wedding Ring design.   The blocks called clamshells are made up of the center (white in this case) with melons (a pair of arcs around a center white piece) attached on two adjacent sides.  The interlocking ring design and the four patches at the intersections get formed as the clamshell blocks are sewn together.  As in other quilts, you sew the blocks together in rows then sew the rows together.  Except, instead of one long seam, you have to sew them in short sections, sewing dot-to-dot.  

In each row, I sewed the four patch units together, starting and stopping on the seam lines.  Then I went back over the row, joining all the curved seams, one arc at a time.  It really is not difficult (though I did more than my usual amount of unsewing in at attempt to keep all the intersections lined up perfectly and have all the seams lie flat) but it is fiddly and takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

By "forever" I figure it took me about 22 hours over five days to sew the blocks together to make the top.  And as I mentioned above, I'm not done yet.  I still have the borders to add.  More on that in a later post.

For now, I am quite pleased with how this quilt is turning out.  I like the colors I used and think it will look fantastic with some fine custom quilting.  It feels good to work on a more challenging design and have it come out well.  And through the process, I've come to have a greater appreciation for fast, fun, and done projects too.