Making: An Improv Double Wedding Ring Quilt

This is one of the things I've been working on lately.

Laying out the blocks.

 I decided that I needed to try making a double wedding ring...improvisationally.  One of my main inspirations was this quilt by Emma Hall from Eli Leon's collection.  I love the story behind this quilt, which you can read here.  It kinda sums up exactly how I feel about quilting.

Emma Hall, Double Wedding Ring c. 1948

Although I used a plastic template for the basis of my pattern, I had to do a bit of drafting as well.  It was fun!

Drafting the double wedding ring.

For the fabric arcs, I used a variety of old denim, tribal batiks, Japanese wovens, and hand-dyed indigo.  The middle sections are made of vintage linen and a couple of gorgeous, organic, hand-woven striped fabrics from India, called Khadi which I have been drooling over at my local shop, A Verb for Keeping Warm.

This is how far I've gotten.  I have this vision of striped, mitered border, but haven't dreamt up a way to do that yet.  Any ideas?

P.S. If you live in the SF Bay Area, I'll be teaching an improvisational quilting class this Sunday!  I promise, it will be fun!  You could make a whole day of it, by taking the indigo resist dyeing workshop first, and then the quilting class after!

Learning: Strips and Triangles and Geometry - Oh, My!

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to take a workshop with Rita Hutchens through one of our local guilds, EBHQ.  I've been a fan of Rita's geometrical work since I saw her on Simply Quilts and she made magic happen from strips of fabric sewn into tubes.  I used some of her techniques on a quilt I started work on last summer (but haven't shown any pictures of yet!) and wanted to learn more, so I was excited to sign up for the workshop.

Rita showing us how she creates Tube magic!

It was a full day of sewing, with some bits of math and geometry thrown in, and I was exhausted by the end of it! Good thing I had an extra-large latte keeping me company.

By sewing fabric strips together and cutting them into the correct angles, you end up with so many different (and fun!) shapes.

Here's what I made.  I love how the Licorice Fizz fabric pops against the solids.

I'm so glad she's worked out the equations for me, and I'll be referring back to my hand-outs often.  There is NO WAY I would have had the ability or the patience to figure this stuff out!

These are some fun shapes that Rita made using her technique.

One of Rita's quilts. All of these pieces started as strip sets!

If you can't take one of her workshops, you can still learn her techniques by purchasing her books or patterns from her Etsy shop, and watching her YouTube channel.