July has been a good month for sewing here. It feels so good to spend time pushing fabric through my Bernina! Though most of what I'm showing today was actually sewn years ago. I think it was about in 2005, I took a class from a local instructor, Mary Russell. She had designed a specialty ruler for the double wedding ring block. Her quilts were beautiful and I set about making the rings to applique thinking I knew exactly how I was going to quilt this as an online machine quilting group had some great ideas. I finished the top pretty much that same year and then felt the trepidation of actually quilting the feathers that I saw on the ones online. It sat. And then I was less enthused about the feathers and it sat longer. Finally at a quilt show I saw ring quilts from Sew Kind of Wonderful that had a very different look and I was inspired! Eventually I bought curved rulers from The Quilted Pineapple and well it sat a little longer... Till after practicing on the little mystery wheel quilt, I finally jumped in. So all that to say, here it is... finally done!
Boston Terriers...in Chicago not Boston but still cute :-)
There was much to learn in this process. I didn't mark this until I had it on the quilt frame. Before would have been better but I think I was still intimidated with the design. In fact, even after the first couple of rows, I was still overwhelmed by how much quilting was on it. My DH had to talk me into leaving it. I quilted on for several days and just stayed committed.
I was pleased and surprised that when I took it off the frame, it was still soft and not stiff with thread. We are hanging this on a wall but it could actually be used to cuddle up with. Getting the curved crosshatching consistent will be more to learn in the future but I've got to say that these rulers from The Quilted Pineapple are wonderful. I am actually kind of enjoying the look of it now though won't be repeating this process any time soon!
So I promised a few more pics from the quilt show. Here are some more favorites.
A Gypsy Wife in pastels!
And specially for a friend who just attended a goat yoga event :-) Nama-a-aste!
Linking here to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop it up, Friday!
Sigh...so very pretty. I saw how much work you put into each section and I think the results are worth it. It looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a beautiful job of quilting on your lovely top! I find curved cross hatching very tricky, but it sure looks great!
ReplyDeleteYour double wedding ring is absolutely gorgeous. I love the Quilted Pineapple rulers. I'm glad you decided to dive in and give them a try! And I'm really glad you stuck with it.
ReplyDeleteOh! That's gorgeous. Well done. :) I've very recently bought a longarm and will shortly be trying my first ruler work. I'm in awe of everyone who does pretty custom like this.
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