Ask Jo: The Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Every so often I share questions that readers have asked either in my email or from the comments.  Today is one of those days.

From Louise, “What pattern are you using for this new double wedding ring quilt? What pattern did you use for the first one? Which one would you recommend and why?”  I make my kids a wedding quilt.  Last year I made this quilt for my son and his wife Jen. (Here’s a link if you want to see more)

I made that quilt using this template set, Double Wedding Ring Template.

The set is AWESOME and I loved working with it.  It has all the holes drilled so you can easily mark the pieces.  The directions are really good and are a huge help in showing how to put the pieces together because there truly is a trick to it.  You can see from the picture that there are several different options you can make with this template set too.

This time around my picky daughter Kelli who likes all things small and scrappy wants a double wedding ring quilt but she wants it made with a smaller pattern.  She found a pattern in this book, Classic Country Quilts: Step-By-Step Directions for 25 All-Time Favorites, that she liked.

The background pieces are much smaller.  When the arches come together they form a four patch too.  She likes that look.  Honestly, before I made my first double wedding ring quilt, I thought they were all the same and the same template.  NOT TRUE AT ALL!!   There are lots of variations in the degree of the arch, width of the arch and number of pieces in the arch.

Well I decided to give Kelli’s quilt wish a try.  I wanted a template set for cutting out the quilt so I had one made at the local mobile glass company.  It was only about $10.

I did have an Accuquilt cutter and the double wedding ring die but honestly, I wasn’t a fan.  There are no directions, tips or tricks on how to successfully piece the quilt.  There was no way to quickly mark the pieces…the worst part, the waste.  There is so much waste using this template.  Cutting it out by hand either with or without a template set cuts down on so much of the waste.

So far, I have Kelli’s version cut out and the arches are all pieced.  Slowly I am making them into melons.  It is a slow process for sure as I pin a lot of it.

I’ll be able to tell you much more in about two months or so because that’s when this quilt needs to be finished.  Before long I am going to have to drop everything and only sew on this.