Handmade Retro's Double Wedding Ring Quilt!

Today's feature is from Kristy of Handmade Retro...and it is so beautiful!!  I love when we get a great quilt with an even better story!!  She thought out every bit of this project and it is so thoughtful.  Kristy is part of Sew Australia, a great bee with some fun photos to look through and for them she recently shared this great tutorial.  Also she had her first recipe on Moda Bake Shop this summer, can't wait to try it!

It is finished - and I couldn't be more pleased with how it has turned out. 

First a little explanation about the recipients which will make some of the details about the quilt make more sense. The quilt is for my brother, Justin and his wife since last November, Amy. And yes, I realise that makes this a very late wedding present. Amy's blog documenting the planning of their wedding was called Polka Dots and Sunshine, she wore a dress with small dots on the overdress fabric and the flowers at the wedding were yellow. Justin's favourite colour is green. They married in a garden in the foothills of Perth and marked the aisle with handmade pinwheels from scrapbooking paper.

The quilt measures 55" by 65" and is 4 rings by 5 rings making the quilt a lap size. It is the size I had planned from the beginning to be used on the couch or at the end of the bed but if I had several more months I might have gone for a bed size as the piecing is time consuming and, at time tedious, but once I got the hand of it it turned out not to be so hard.

I didn't use a 'pattern' as such but cut everything using templates from Matilda's Own, the set I bought coming with a handy book detiling fabric requirements for different quilt sizes as well as some very detailed and helpul piecing directions and the template designs to square off the edges. The holes in the templates to mark seam intersections was also VERY helpful.

So to the fabric choices and placement. The intersecting squares bringing the rings together were the two colours that represtented Justin and Amy, the green and the yellow. The other prints in the rings included a number of spots as a nod to the wedding's 'shape' theme as well as some other prints to balance these out.

The backing fabric was chosen as a contrast to the front, stripes and spots but the print could have been a little overwhealing without being split. The double pinwheel blocks down the centre is reminicinet of the aisle at their wedding ceremony which was marked by homemade pinwheels made using scrapbook paper.

I echo quilted the rings on my machine. I love the way it looks but it took a lot longer than I thought and really took a lot out of my neck and shoulders. I enjoy quilting all my own quilts but the basic domestic machines certainly have their limits.

Of course it is labelled on the back - the quote is one that came to Amy when planning ceremony readings for the wedding but didn't feel is appropriate to include in the ceremony itself. And of course their names and the wedding date. On the way home with them tomorrow.

Other Posts about this quilt

A Project (with a capital P)

HandmadeRetro: Double Wedding Ring Progress (or procrastination)

HandmadeRetro: A deep breath....and start - The Double Wedding ...

Arc, Melons and Centres - The Double Wedding Ring quilt

A curvy Weekend

Crossroads

I (Megan) finished my quilt with Robot Factory from Robert Kaufman, and I am so happy!! :)

My honey named it

Crossroads

49 x 63

This was really fun to create.  I knew I wanted something modern and angular to fit in with a robotic type theme.  I was laying in bed one night thinking of quilt design (anyone???) and then I thought of intersecting blocks that look like the feed into each other.  A-ha!  The cool thing is that I think with feminine fabrics it could look like a star or even flowers.  And I really love looking at the pattern of the khaki Kona, kind of looks like old fashioned ceilings and woodwork, do you know what I'm talking about?....

I went with straight-line quilting, again to keep the modern feel.  Plus with boys quilts you don't want to get to swirly :)

Don't those little funky robots make you happy?!?  And I just love the gears, wrenches and graph lines.  I love featuring fabrics in quilts, so with this pattern it allows you to fussy cut your favorite prints.  Back to thinking of a more feminine fabric line...it could be really cute to make those robot feature blocks into pinwheels, don't you think?

I went back and forth a lot about the border.  I considered continuing the pattern, but after sketching it, laying out fabric, it just lacked a wow factor.  I love that it is these monochromatic squares.  I think it frames it but isn't too distracting.  And I always have to have a binding that pops!

And the backing.  Don't you love seeing your quilting on the flip side?  I couldn't resist featuring those robots again.  It was just one of those piece as you go methods...if you can call it that :)

Crossroads is our newest pattern and to celebrate we are offering a

20% discount on all the patterns in our shop

using the promo code

CROSSROADS

now through Sunday October 2nd

Happy Quilting!  See you tomorrow for a feature I  know you'll love!!

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you all were able to link up to yesterday's party, if not you should look around at the great projects!  Today we've got a feature from Caroline of Artfully Caroline.  She's got a super sweet quilt to share that she made for a sweet new baby.  Caroline has a great collection of tutorials HERE and I love her little about me page, it's cute and funny!  And I just found out she's from France...lucky :)  France is one of our all time favorite places we've visited.  Here is the so sweet baby quilt!:

This has been such a pleasure to work on it, not only because it has been a labor of love and a needed distraction while I was not feeling well but also because Bug and I adore the story, the images and I love colors, bright, bold colors. This was the perfect project for me You can see the earlier stages of the quilt here and here.

I finished it just in time to deliver it myself to my then very pregnant cousin Sophie in Provence

Bright and cheerful, it will keep her sweet child warm and cuddly.

I bound the quilt with a very plain white fabric with aqua polka dots and kept the quilting very simple 

Just in the ditch and some cross lines around the edges

And of course the outline of the butterfly and the caterpillar

Sophie liked it a lot! 

That day she also received the  translation of Eric Carle's adorable book so she could tell the story to her baby.

Barely 2 weeks later,  Sophie, her husband and the whole family welcomed sweet Chloé to the world

Unfortunately after we returned home. I will have to wait until our next trip to hold little Chloé. In the meantime, the quilt I made for her will have to make do.

Fabric Tuesday and a winner!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Let me jump right in and announce the winner of the Fashionable Fabrics giveaway.  Drumroll...random.org has decided that you're the winner:

 Mom2RyandSis said...

I really like the Delighted fabrics in blue :)

Congrats!!

One of the cool new features with Linky Tools is you can see how many clicks each project gets in the link party.  This week I'll feature the top three viewed links.  But maybe that's weird because you all obviously saw them...next week I'll do the three projects with the least clicks ;)  Just teasing...

Kim from My Go-Go Life's Rockin' Retro Christmas Tree Skirt TUTORIAL!

Fluffy Sheep Quilting's Fabric Baskets

Suz from Inspiring Creativeness' Christmas Quilt Top

You guys are awesome!!  And so inspiring.  Tuesday is one of my favorite days of the week now :)

Fabric Tuesday #54

Get your link on! 

 If you are new or need a refresher, CLICK HERE for more information on Fabric Tuesday!

Pick a Bunch Quilt from JuneBug's World

June from JuneBug's World has a really cute finish to share with us from the Pick a Bunch line (which I love!). The rainbow colors are just too cute!!  Make sure to see June's Etsy where she sells ridiculously cute (and affordable) clutches.  This is my favorite.  Also see her blog for some fun projects and a good read...I love her post on her daughter's secret lunch money pocket and her darling kite boy pillow finish!  Okay, another yummy quilt to see!


You know I'm true to my word. I'm nothing if not good with follow through - I finished the Pick A Bunch quilt!

I peiced the front with alternating strips of the jelly roll of fabric and strips of white fabric. The back is a peiced sheet with a few half square triangle pinwheels randomly placed, and the binding is some kind of dark brown Kona cotton (espresso?). I did the same as with my Pips quilt and stitched on the binding with one of my sewing machine's decorative stitches.

I love this quilt - I made it just for me. Just because I loved the fabric line. And there are things I would do differently (namely, not really ever interested in stitch in the ditch anymore) but overall I really like the way the quilt looks.

1. livingrm, 2. selvedge, 3. front, 4. back

Oh and what's a good quilt until it's put to good use?

Pretty star quilt finish from Melanie...

When we got this submission from Melanie, it just really popped out at me. I thought it would be a fun Friday feature, just to make us happy and prep us all for the weekend!   I have been wanting to make a star quilt forever! I love the colors, and prints, and white backing. Just really pretty! See Melanie's pretty flower tutorials here, and some fun quilt finishes here.

Ainsley's quilt finish

Hey Everyone!  Sorry I haven't posted since Monday, the week got away from me... but I've got something yummy to show you ;).  Ainsley's quilt is done!  So happy with how it turned out and glad to have completed my 7th quilt!

The stats:Ainsley Star QuiltHullabaloo fabric line by Moda and Kona SnowWarm n' White batting White Gutterman 100% cotton thread25 sawtooth star blocks measuring 8 inches39 x 39.

The front

The Back.  A little something special... a reverse star

closeup of the back

my favorite block nice and quilted and wrinkly

Meandering Machine Quilting

My label.  My Pigma Micron pen bled slightly and faded a little, so I'll go over it again.  Any other ideas for labeling quilts?

So there it is!  What do you think?  Feels so good to be done with a quilt and to make something special for my little girl to grow up with and keep forever.  Maybe my granddaughter will have it one day!  

Giveaway Anyone?

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Fashionable Fabrics!

I myself must have been under a rock because I just discovered them!  But we all of us fabric-lovers know how hard it can be to find our favorite designers and prints...especially in one place!  That is one of the greatest things about Fashionable Fabrics boutique.  Look at some of the goodies I just got from them:

Delicious right??  I can't properly express my love for these prints!!  First, Lotus Dots from Amy Butler are an essential in my book.  And I looove the funky Holiday print from Alexander Henry, Yuletide.  (There's an ant-eater with a scarf and elephant with ear-warmers, need I say more?)  Do I have a plan for it yet, no.  Then the Groovy Guitars from Michael Miller are pretty fabulous too.  I have so many boy car collections, I'm glad I went with Guitars.  Then my favorite.  I love UK by Timeless Treasures.  I love the Union Jack, the double-decker buses, Big Ben...and the beef-eaters.  We've mentioned before our dad is from England so this fabric is fun, brings back memories of visits and just reminds me of my dad!  If you have a great idea for this fabric tell me!  I want to do something cool!! :)

Enough of my rambling.  More about Fashionable Fabrics and then something for you to win!

They really do have a fabulous selection, I spent a couple of hours looking through their site and all the fabric I covet.  I love how it is so well organized, it makes it easy to find fabrics...you can search by collection, designer, print or you can look at Japanese or novelty prints or by pre-cuts and remnants...so many ways.  They make it really easy to search.  And, currently it's $4.95 for shipping on ALL US ORDERS.

So now that you know they have everything you want...

who wants a $25 gift certificate to Fashionable Fabrics?

here's how

leave a separate comment for each

1. visit Fashionable Fabrics and tell us your favorite item

2. "like" Fashionable Fabrics on Facebook

3. "like" Quilt Story on Facebook

This giveaway is now CLOSED.

Quiltstory tutorial at Chasing Cottons

Want to make this cute friendship star block?

We have a tutorial today at Chasing Cottons.

We love Bec from Chasing Cottons, she is a darling girl who quilts in Australia. 

She makes super cute patterns, hosts a fun Quilting Class 101, and for some eye candy, finished quilts.

Head on over!

Sorry all, this was supposed to post at midnight. I don't want to take it down, or it will double in all the google readers. Check tomorrow morning! 

She was nicer this day my friends....fabric tuesday

Hi all, remember this post about Sophie being my feisty child?  She was nicer this day. 

Look what I sewed up for her this week...! LOVE

How cute is this dress and pattern?  The dress pattern is from Izzy and Ivy, "Little Vicky" I just love the classic simplicity of it.  It was a very simple pattern to make. These patterns are so easy to follow with the nice instructions and diagrams, I am feeling very professional with my sewing skills lately!

And the fabric, seriously! How much do you love the print and colors?

It is from the adorable Birch Storyboek line that Megan and I fell in love with at market.  It is 100% organic, so soft. So pretty, I just love it tons!

Sophie loves it too, she tried to wear it to school 2 days in a row, and I had to bribe her out of it.

What fun projects have you been up to this week?

If you don't know the rules to play along with Fabric Tuesday, click here.  

Can't wait to see what you made!

The winner of Sew Obsessed giveaway is:

 Mommarock said...

Oooooh! Michael Miller's Candy Shoppe! Wowwww!

September 15, 2011 2:12 PM