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!

My quilting 2011 was pretty amazing. I challenged myself to do things I have never done before. I took the Canadian Quilting Association judging program, certain that I would fail, but surprisingly the course instructors Kathleen Bissett and Anna Hergert continue to encourage me to keep plugging away at it. It has given me a totally different perspective and challenged me to try new things. I, the quilter who only sews straight lines and pieced blocks, took an “art quilt” class! The challenge of doing my own design just about drove me around the bend but I am in love with my work so far (note to self: UFO project to be finished in 2012). I took classes in machine quilting, colour theory and paper-cut applique (note to self: finish the class samples). Being the convenor for program and workshop was the best volunteer job ever. I started out shaking in my boots because I didn’t know what I was doing but once I decided that the goal was to offer a variety of opportunities to guild members and that I am a typical guild member, developing a program and finding speakers and teachers became easy. I learned so much and I got to know some incredible quilting artists and teachers.

I finally finished that flannel quilt for our bed – my first large bed quilt. The fabric is by Nancy Halverson and I bought it with some inheritance money in 2000 which means just thinking about the quilt design took over a decade. (note to self: need a new mantra “just pick a pattern”).  I simply adore her fabric: the colour, the design, the feel of the fabric. Did I say it was flannel? Do you know just how doggone heavy a queen sized flannel quilt can be? When I am working on the binding, Dave can lower the thermostat by 2 degrees! And it is no easy task to bind a flannel quilt by hand. There will be some sore fingers when this is done. (note to self: UFO to be finished for January guild meeting; no make that February; no make the goal to have the quilt on the bed by next winter).

My daughter Elaine’s “this is your life quilt” was also finished. She is going to graduate from university this spring and it started as a high school graduation project. Every month I would find a new novelty fabric that was just so “Elaine” – the bikinis and flip flops, the New York subway, the sudoku puzzles, the goldfish and the Beatles – and the quilt simply kept getting bigger. I finally stopped at a double bed size but have enough fabric for another quilt. So the next challenge was to make my son Joe a new quilt. Decided to use a couple of jelly rolls (Christmas present from Dave last year), signed up for a strip piecing kaleidoscope class and bought a fancy new ruler. Made one block, got all the strips sewn with the exception of one. Seems I have lost a strip (note to self: raid the batik stash and put this on the quilt retreat project list). Do I dare promise Joe this will take me less than five years?

The guild retreat in April was amazing; four full days and every night I closed down the sewing room and I didn’t finish a project. This year, I am changing my approach. One project for every day instead of a suitcase full of fabric with no quilting plan. Maybe I should start packing now.

After a guild meeting that focused on organizing your sewing space I went home and carved out a corner and devoted one entire wall of the family room just for quilting. I managed to put the rolling fabric drawers under a table that now is devoted for cutting, at least when it isn’t overflowing with fabric and supplies. All the thousands of pages of magazines that I have been ripping out for the past decade are now organized in twenty binders. I need to move the computer to another corner of the room so that the bookshelves and drawers are closer to me. I love my design wall, a piece of white flannel 10’ by 10’. Now all I need to do is learn how to use the new machine I bought a year ago, lessons start in February.

All this thinking has my brain swimming with project ideas and I think I need to hit the sewing room. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for planning.

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…