Double Wedding Ring Along-Cutting Efficiently

We have a page with all the Double Wedding Ring steps here.

Hey…are we ready to get started on your Double Wedding Ring Quilt?  Last week I suggested you need to:

-decide on your pattern size
-make templates (optional)
-pick your fabrics
-get a 28mm small rotary cutter (optional)

I told you that I am making mine just like the last one I made so…I’m aiming for this….Some calculations will be happening and it might end up just a little bigger…we’ll see.  It depends on how long my momentum sticks with me.  I have no rules or plans for all of this.  We’ll just make it up as we go.

I had a leftovers from the last quilt so I am using them.

I had PLENTY more to cut though and Kelli was fabulous and helped me out a bit with that.

I thought I would give you some cutting tips…but before I do that I would like to make a suggestion.  Cut out enough things to make nine blocks.  Give it a try first before you cut it all out.  This really isn’t a hard quilt once you get the hang of it but it’s not a quilt that everyone want to put the time into.  Nine “centers” would give you a cute little table mat…but if you’re ambitious and determined, go for it.  Cut out the whole quilt!!

Now onto the cutting instructions for the CENTERS and MELONS….As you can see I have my template and my 28mm small rotary cutter .  I recommend both.  I also recommend a fresh blade.

This quilt is one that a lot of fabric can we wasted in the cutting if not careful.

To start, this is what I did.  I folded my background fabric in half matching cut ends.  Then I folded up just enough so my template would fit on the fabric as shown.  I laid the template on the fabric as shown and cut.  This cut 8 centers at once.

See in the photo below how I cut and the small remaining shape at the bottom of the photo that came after the cut.

From there, I put the WEDGE template on that small scrap and cut out four of the MELONS.

From there I slid the center template down the fabric and lined it up again.  Be careful doing this as the “corners” often have jagged cuts from cutting the previous set of CENTERS.  Notice the jagged cut at the bottom of the photo below.

After cutting that set of CENTERS I used the melon shaped scrap to cut more MELONS.  I cut all of the MELON from scrap.

After I cut a few of the CENTERS, I would deal with the fabric at the center on the fold.  These I opened up, ironed the fold and then place the CENTER template on them and cut.  Again there will scrap that MELONS can be cut from.

Cut the desired amount of CENTERS and MELONS.  The pattern suggests 100 CENTERS and 220 MELONS.

If you are a person who saves your scraps into strips like I do, you will LOVE the next part.  You can use your 2″ strips to cut the SQUARES (B’s) and your 2 1/2″ strips to cut the WEDGES (A’s).

Kelli was doing the cutting at this point and I was doing the sorting.  For the WEDGES and the SQUARES I picked lots of medium toned fabrics.  I often don’t have a good place to use them and this quilt is perfect.  I limited blues to only light shaded blues as the background of my quilt will be dark blue and using too many dark blues might alter the look of the rings in the pattern.

SQUARES are cut from 2″ strips.  These can be cut with a regular ruler.  The pattern says to cut 440 of these.  Some people like to make these a specific color.  I didn’t do that with this quilt but did for the first Double Wedding Ring quilt I made.

Grab lots and lots and lots of 2 1/2″ strips to cut the WEDGES.  You’ll need 2640 of them….I know.  It’s not a job for the faint of heart.

When cutting these flip the template to take advantage of the already cut side. I cut layers of 8 at a time.  I’ll be honest…I didn’t count these.

I quit when I had a container this full….We’ll have to see how long it lasts me.

That’s all for this week so your assignment is:
Start cutting.  Try to at least have a few of the WEDGES cut….Next week is WEDGES week.

If you have question ask…. I’m sewing this week. Remember, I have to always be a step or two ahead of you!!