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January’s workshop produced excellent and lovely results, the participants moved along quickly, and some of them had four blocks done by the end of the day, quite an accomplishment.  Janice, who plans to make two wedding ring quilts for two weddings in just six weeks went home and got straight to work; she has provided us with her new found tips on how to make this process zip along…

Double Wedding Ring – Life after the workshop
By Janice T.

The Mississauga Quilters Guild organized a great workshop with Johanna Masko who taught techniques for the Double Wedding Ring last Saturday.  I now know how to use spray starch, parchment paper, templates and lots of other new techniques to sew curved arcs with great results every time!  I never would have attempted a pattern with curves and templates without Johanna’s class.

Patti Carrey from Northcott spoke at the Guild meeting last Thursday – she suggested that if we take a class, success will be greater if we continue with the project within three days of the class.  Well, I waited only three minutes and I would say that mantra must work!

Do you know how many of those little pieces you need to cut for a large Double Wedding Ring quilt?  Don’t ask as you may be daunted by the task.  I developed a few more techniques of my own in order to cut the 500+ pieces.  Note – these may not work for you, so read at your own risk: 

• Use water soluble marker when tracing templates – easier than a mechanical pencil and any residual not cut off can easily be sprayed away from final block
• Nest curved template against the previous one so you only have to cut once and not twice.  Inside curve is slightly tighter than previous outside curve, but I tested it on a final block and it made no difference.  Another plus is that you get an extra piece or two out of each strip!
• After marking all the curved templates on one strip, use your ruler and rotary cutter to trim ¼” outside the template cutting lines from both long sides of the strip BEFORE cutting out each template.  This will then allow you to open your scissors wide and cut each arc in only two snips – this will alleviate finger fatigue and blisters – and is better for your scissors.  Only cut the archs – not the straight sides yet.
• Gather the cut pieces and place them loosely together facing the same way.  Hold all pieces in left hand, starting with top and one-at-a-time, snip off all the STRAIGHT edges on one side of the pieces.  Turn them around and snip off the STRAIGHT edges on the other side.  This will only make sense if you have the template and know from experience how tedious the cutting is.  This quintupled my production rate.
• When cutting the corner pieces, draw the template on one (starched) strip.  Line up 2 starched strips behind, pin inside each corner piece template outline – through all three fabrics.  Cut out 3 (starched) strips at the same time.
• When placing the arcs on the background block, the corner blocks were often perfectly positioned without much tweaking of the arcs – much to my surprise, given the above short-cuts.  Then I gave the block one quick press with the iron.  This secured the pieces in place and they laid perfectly flat for sewing.  Use 4 pins for extra security and stack in preparation for machine appliquéing to the background fabric.
• Bottom Line fine thread was in my needle, with Aurifil in the bobbin and both worked well together.
• The zig-zag went very well and the walking foot almost didn’t need my guidance to stay on track.

I have to thank Martina and Cheryl who provided extra cutting and ironing support in class.  This gave me the kick-start to go from four blocks finished in class to 53 blocks by the next evening.  Anything is possible – you only need a kick-start!

Editor’s note: Johanna’s blog can be found at:

http://seamslikely.blogspot.com/

Here are a few photos of our day. Janice’s double wedding ring has certainly come a long way since Saturday – and this is Sunday evening’s picture!

Hi Ladies,

Here’s hoping everyone had a great holiday and maybe still enjoying some time off to sew.

For those who are signed up for the Double Wedding Ring with Johanna Masko, please note that you should all have your materials list by now. One of the participants has inquired about preparing the background blocks in advance, to which Johanna replied that we should ”cut them 8 1/2″ square (raw measurement) so they finish 8″.  (There are 16 blocks with a finished size of 32″.)

Don’t forget we’ll be hosting Patti Carey from Northcott next week as she discusses ”Finishing School” - how to finish our quilts in preparation for our quilt show in 2013.

Some updates:

At our March meeting, we will host two past presidents who will give their reflections of the Guild, and will talk about some of their favourite quilting projects.

And …Heather Black will be doing an applique workshop for us in April. Stay tuned for details!

Check the Programs tab for a quick view of our programs and workshops for the year. Narrative will be updated as it becomes available.

Happy New Year!

mw

P.S. Here is the January workshop supply list:

Double Wedding Ring Workshop Supply List

The quantity of background fabric in the list will give you a section of Double Wedding Ring that will measure about 32” square (16 blocks). Since this is a technique class, students may want to aim for a larger finished patchwork. Students interested in larger quilt tops may either e-mail me to ask about their requirements, or they may wait and ask me in class.  The 1 metre of background fabric listed is plenty to work on during the workshop. The quantities given for the Fat Quarters will be enough for larger quilt tops and don’t need revision unless students plan for a queen or king quilt. I suggest doubling the amount of Fat Quarters in that case.

All fabrics should be quilt-weight 100% cotton.

Supply List-

1 metre background fabric (fairly plain and contrasting with rings) (this is for the 16 background blocks)

12 different Fat Quarters assorted prints (and solids if you wish) for arcs and corners

Thread to blend with background fabric

Thread to blend with arcs and corners

Spray starch (Easy On starch from the grocery store- blue or purple can)

Non-stick baking parchment

Template plastic

Scissors for both paper and fabric

Rotary cutter, 6” x 24” rotary grid ruler and cutting mat

Mechanical pencil (and also a thin white or light-coloured marking pencil if your arc fabrics are dark)

Sewing machine in good working order

Walking foot for the machine

Pins, pin-dish/pincushion, seam ripper, snippy scissors, etc…