Something Blue – A Modern DWR

 I love the look of the Double Wedding Ring (DWR) pattern, but I don’t so much love the idea of all those curves. So when I saw posts about the DWR Challenge by the NYC Mod Quilt Guild, well I knew mine wasn’t going to be a traditional version. Naturally… my version is also paper pieced.

Without further ado, might I present my take on the DWR:



I’m calling it Something Blue (thanks to Erin for the suggestion way back when – and for the encouragement from the moment I bounced my idea off her, right up until it was finished and photographed!). This is a mini quilt – measuring at 26” square. It’s destined to live on my wall I think. I just love looking at it. It’s probably wrong to heart one of your projects this much, but there you have it.



I had terrible problems getting the photos to show the vibrancy of the blues! I used Kona Robin’s Egg blue (lighter blue) and a homespun that is very similar to Kona Lagoon in colour. Love. Plus a bit more. The background fabric is Newsprint from the Collage line by Such Designs. More love. Love love love. Told you I heart this.

The pattern is one of mine - I drew it up specifically for this challenge - it's not in my Craftsy shop yet, I'm still deciding on how to do that (just the block or the whole quilt pattern?!).



The only part of this quilt that I did not love so much was quilting it. I really struggle with the actual quilting part. I want to be all adventurous and bold, but I’m not so fab at FMQ and I always worry my quilting will ruin my piecing. So generally I do minimal quilting – enough to hold the quilt together. That’s the point right?!;)

But for this project – I went a bit further. I tried a couple of quilting designs, but they did not work. There was much unpicking and gnashing of teeth. I do not care to rehash those minutes hours of quilty agony.  Then I settled on the echo quilting. Perfect. I used Aurifil thread for the very first time (I know, where have I been?!). It was #40 wt in white and boy was it smooth. Okay not at first. But that’s because my walking foot is evil. Uneven stitches, major drag, does not feed the quilt through, hates me. So I used my applique foot. Smooth sailing, even stitches, no drag, loves me. It’s like good vs evil. Seriously. Here’s pictorial proof:



So the quilt police might be after me (if I don’t post for a few days, you know I’m in quilting gaol, forced to square up a bazillion 1.5” HSTs as punishment) but this is what works for me. So I echo quilted inside all the stars and diamonds – all straight line quilting with my applique foot. I didn’t want to quilt over the top of the blue fabrics, and the white thread blends nicely into the newsprint. So this worked out for all involved. Happy.



The backing is a fab repeat print that I had hiding in my stash. Not sure what it is, but it suited my purposes nicely. That being to hide the quilting on the back in case it didn’t look so fab. Doubts. I have them.



I finished it off with the darker blue for binding and did a happy dance. Actually I did a happy dance in my head. The rest of me was madly snapping photos and barking orders at Miss 3 to get her shoes on so we could run out the door to pick Mr 6 up from school.



And so my challenge piece is done! A modern take on the Double Wedding Ring pattern – and one that makes me very happy.



So happy in fact, I’m going to link it up all over the blogosphere without apology, including my entry into the DWR Challenge at NYC Mod Quilters.
 


I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins, TGIFF which is at M-R's place this week, Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Oh and don’t forget to pop by and leave a comment on my giveaway post – a charm pack of Kate Spain’s Daydream. That’s right – an early release pre-cut. Tempting?



Oh and hey, want to get in on the linky fun? Why not link up your latest happy foundation pieced project here?

Quick refresher on what the deal is with the Paper Piecing Party (full details here):
* It’s on every weekend here at Quiet Play, starting Friday.
* Link up something you’re working on that’s foundation paper pieced
* Link a blog post or flickr photo
* Visit at least two other links and leave a comment because that’s half the fun!

An InLinkz Link-up