Um diesen Text auf deutsch zu lesen, klicke bitte auf das DE oben auf der Seite.

Another Double Wedding Ring, this time a 'real' quilt in big. Thank god the friend who want to have it chose the variation 'melon in one piece' instead of pieced melons. But I think I would have denied to make that quilt - that is tooo much work!

But this way: I'd love to make that quilt! I know her and I know that she will appreciate it.

These are the planning sheets: she want 9 different colours for the rings. First we distributed the 9 colours (here in redsand yellows so we could see the differences):

then I draw the quilt in EQ7 and calculated the yardage. We'll need 669 pieces in 10 fabrics.  Uiii.

And now let the fun begin with Accuquilt. On the leaflet for the die they say what stripsize you need for which shape and how many pieces you can get out of one strip.

I suppose I will need several weeks (or months) to make that quilt so I calculated very generous. There is no possibility to get these fabrics in 6 or 10 weeks!
But we did not buy fabric for the backing. Whatever is left from the top, we'll use for the backing.

I had checked the width of the strips before we went shopping. There are two shapes where I don't agree with Accuquilt. For the big center A and the arc F you need 10 inch strips. But for the small melon C you need only 7 inch, for the corner B only 3 inch.

But you can optimize the number of pieces you get from one strip! I suppose Accuquilt calculated everything with the fanfold-method. If you fanfold curves you waste a lot of fabric.
But you can cut shapes B and F much better when you stack 6 strips and let them hang over the die:

Pheeew - it took much less fabric than I had calculated. There is a lot of fabric left!  The friend will be happy :-).

In case I make another one in my lifetime I wrote the number of pieces per strip on the leaflet.

These are the 669 pieces - these mountains will become a quilt...

Well. That's were the problems started.

I wanted to sew at least ONE ring between the other big quilts of the 1st quarter of 2019, just for my own fun.

I grabbed some pieces and sat down at the sewing machine. I even had read my own tutorial for DWR before.

Oh. Accuquilt's melon C looks different than Marti Michell's! Marti's ends blunt at the front, Accuquilt's one in a very narrow tip.
Uh - how do you sew this tip to the Arc F? My tutorial doesn't fit there at all.
So I looked into the manual that came with the die. Aha, one should mark a point on the melon C with 1/4 inch distance. Only - where to measure 1/4 inch?

From the tip down as in picture A? Then there'd much less than 1/4 inch of fabric left to the left and right of the point. Or 1/4 inch from the left and right as in picture B? but then the distance from the tip to the point is much larger than 1/4 inch.

Help!
I tested a little bit (not with the nice fabric), but then had no more time.
Before I write to Accuquilt, I searched the internet on the next train ride. I found a blogpost by Joanne here - I want to try that one first.

To be continued...

ahaa! That was a good tip. I got the melon-piece C on the arc F.

Now I have to add the other arc to the ensemble. The first try was almost ok, the second better.

and now a deep breath and let's start with the real pieces!

That's where I am now:

Something to laugh between the blocks - I have no idea how I managed to sew one ring this way:

My worksheet looks like this - I was scared to death to sew a piece the wrong way and discover it later. Until now I sewed only one arc the wrong colourway and could fix it before the next seam.

But still 18 rings to go.

The top is finished - finally!!! I had discussed the quilt pattern with the recipient. For the white center of the circles there should be two rounds with parallel seams. I can't do this without a template so I made a stencil: First I cut a center with Accuquilt by paper. Then I built a double pencil with two pencils and many rubber bands. With this I draw along the paper edge, so I had a parallel line. I cut it out and transferred it onto this thick plastic foil, which you can buy for that purpose.

Then I did the same again, this time I cut the plastic on the inside - and there was my stencil!

All I had to do now was to transfer the stencil on the 54 centers of the top.

And here are three huge pieces, waiting for glue-basting (thank god the appartment next to mine is empty right now. The landlord allowed me to use it for that quilt. The finished quilt will measure about 75 x 110 inches - I don't have that free space in my appartment!)

Oh Dear, this took some time. The quiltpattern isn't that difficult, but the quilt is huge.

And the trimming wasn't easy either. You can't do it with the straight ruler. Each and every curve has to be done slowly and manually, sometimes with the rollcuter, sometimes with the big scissors.

The binding had to be cut on the bias, with all these curves! For the first time I rolled it like Elaine Theriault shows in that video. And it worked! No turning on this endless bias strip (did I mention that the quilt is huge?)

I sewed the binding onto the quilt like Shar Jorgenson shows in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH9HUuRQhhw

And now I need some time for handstitching the binding onto the back.

Done!!!

A lot of beautiful details:

The scrappy backing and the quilt-pattern:

And that's where it lives now: