Friday 9 February 2018

Modern Double Wedding Rings (Metro Rings) Test Block(s)

So I asked my daughter and her finance if they would like me to make them a Double Wedding Rings Quilt and they both agreed they liked the pattern.  I proposed Metro Rings by Sew Kind of Wonderful because it is simplified with strip piecing but to me still retains the overall Double Wedding Rings look.  (Remember the word simplified as I continue.)

 I have also been making Dear Jane blocks and my daughter was quite taken with this block in particular where I used bias edges pulled back and sewn down a la Cathedral Windows inspiration to create orange peels rather than hand appliqued them on, to which I am currently allergic.

 She asked me if I might be able to incorporate something along this vein into the Rings Quilt.  I said I would see if I could.  I followed the Metro Rings instructions and created strip pieced curves and middle and corner background pieces using the Quick Curve Ruler.

When it came time to add the final two diagonal corner pieces however, instead of just adding one triangle, I added three triangles.  Two triangles were ironed in half and their ironed edges were butted up against each other on top of the original triangle before being sewn on.


Here are four of the blocks sewn together with their triangle corners meeting together in the centre.  I like how around the central square you can see a second ghost square.


Here the bias edges are pinned back into oranges peels revealing a flower underneath.


I then sewed the bias edges down.  I used yellow thread which I thought added to the affect and also meant I didn't have to change between pink and blue thread for such a small amount of sewing.


I sent the above and below pictures to my daughter with this message. "Is this what you had in mind?  These are not your fabrics so ignore the colours, just look at the shapes." To which she replied.  "YES!! That's exactly it!  I think it's so beautiful! :D"


Well, of course, I have to make the quilt that way now don't I!  I refer you again back to how the Metro Rings is a simplified version of the Double Wedding Rings Quilt..... Good thing I will be saving all that time with the strip piecing as I will need to use it with the addition of all those lovely little peek-a-boo orange peel flowers!  Actually, I think it is going to look really great, the four triangles coming together to form a square were kind of chunky looking and this totally changes that.  Even if I were to make this quilt without the peek-a-boo orange peel flowers, I think I would choose to use two triangles instead of one to reduce the chunkiness of the centre square and I like how it gives you a further opportunity to add another layer of shading of the rings.

I'm going to make eight more test blocks so I can make a 36" square test quilt which will help me practice the quilting and will also become a nice little baby quilt instead of just a few spare blocks left hanging around. By the way, the Metro Rings instructions were great and the rings can be sewn together without any pinning whatsoever - my kind of sewing!  I didn't have to rip out anything while making my practice blocks.  I had watched their Metro Rings Video Tutorial and it really helped.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

2 comments: