That Batik Modern Double Wedding Ring Quilt

A really long time ago, I posted about a modern Double Wedding Ring quilt I started.

I first posted about it in this blog post in 2013. More recently, there was progress -- but that was in 2015. So, it's been a while.

In my original post from 2013, I mentioned that I was definitely inspired by this quilt from Jo's Country Junction. I loved the dark blue background, and I'd never seen a DWR quilt with anything other than a light background, and I LOVED the look of dark blue.

Not being sure I had the endurance for all those hundreds of tiny pieces, I decided on a "modern" look: rings made from larger pieces, and done in batiks.

I've loved the fabrics, and the colors, and I've enjoyed working on it, but I've been busy. So, it's been sitting.

Yesterday, Jo's Country Junction announced a Double Wedding Ring Quilt-Along ... Mine's not quite the same, but the Quilt-Along sounds pretty user-friendly and uncomplicated ... So, I think this is my opportunity to get motivated to finish mine!

I dug the project out of its zipper-bag-in-a-box. As often happens, I got a lot of the "hard part" finished, and then the project stalled for lack of time. Looks like I've got 5 of my 7 rows mostly-assembled. There are pieces to add to the edges, possibly in conjunction with the borders. And I'm undecided how I want to do the borders, but I've got some ideas.

So, before next week, I want to double-check my layout and figure out the plan for the border. (See all those options laid out on paper? I need to figure out which layout I chose and started, and whether all my pieces and parts are accounted for.)

I'm linking this post to Jo's Quilt-Along blog post for this week.

Whatever Wednesday

Here's my Wednesday report on random projects:

This crumb quilt is nearly ready for quilting. It's a baby quilt for a friend. It needs a border, and the backing needs a patchwork insert to bring it up to size. I'm planning on black-and-white striped binding.

 

All 32 of my 25-patch blocks are ready, and all 31 of my neutral "made fabric" (a.k.a. "scrap vortex") blocks are ready. I'm starting to assemble them! It should make a twin-size quilt.

  

 

The Pumpkins quilt top is done -- I love the look of it with the borders on! Next up, I need to tweak the backing so it's the right size, and then ... quilting!

  

In knitting news, I realized I haven't yet posted a picture of the finished purple socks.

 And, since early May, I've been working on a new pair of socks.

And, in the "whatever" category, I've been trying to add some color to my flowerbeds, so these clearance items from Lowe's should help!

  

I'm linking this post to this week's Whatever Wednesday at Jo's Country Junction.

Whatever Wednesday ... on Thursday ... Whatever!

One of my favorite blogs has a link party to report progress on projects. It used to be just for quilts ("UFO Challenge"); now it's for whatever sorts of projects are in progress ("Whatever Wednesday"). The link party is a great reminder to keep little bits of progress happening!!

I'm late posting, since it's no longer Wednesday, but here goes:

I've been trying to finish some quilting projects. This is good, because I'm constantly brainstorming new ways to use up fabric scraps (read: I'm constantly starting new projects!).

This week, I finally finished quilting the 1008 Squares quilt. 

I even cut binding for it yesterday, and put the binding on today! 

 

I started this one a long time ago. 

I blogged about starting it over three years ago. 

It quickly progressed to being a quilt top. 

More recently, it finally got borders. 

And, and it feels good to be getting it done. I'm loving the striped binding!

Also, in the past few days, I finished assembling the pumpkins part of the Pumpkins quilt top.

(The Pumpkins quilt was previously blogged here and  here.) The first border is on. Next up: the patchwork border! 

To make this a reversible quilt, my super-scrappy rendition of "Connect Four" (blogged here) is ready to be the quilt back. It still needs a plain border to bring it up to size. 

And, in my neverending quest to sew up some of my fabric, I started some 25-patches in muted colors. Lots of little squares!

 

So, that's my quick rundown of (some of) what I've been working on.

I'm linking this post to this week's "Whatever Wednesday" at Jo's Country Junction. 

UFO Challenge

I'm working to finish some projects, so this started happening last weekend: 

Quilting on the Hopscotch Butterscotch quilt ... I made the pieced back for it last week.

In the interest of full disclosure, some of this happened, too! Oops.

In other news, I'm working on the back for my pumpkins quilt. 

I had sewn a little a few weeks ago, working lots of scraps (and leftovers from another project -- see the end of this post) into my plan.

Got that quilt back done!

(Inspiration: "Connect Four" quilt pattern from the book "Country Girl Modern" by Jo Kramer and Kelli Hanken ... I changed it up a lot, to use the scraps and sizes I have, but the concept is similar, and their design was my inspiration for this one.)

As I work on my UnFinished Objects, it's a great help to have a weekly link party as a check-in -- it keeps me motivated to have something to share, and it's fun to see what other quilters are working on.

My post is a little late (meant to post on Wednesday), but I'm linking it anyway -- to this week's UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction.

UFO Quilt Progress

My UnFinished Objects are coming along!

This past long weekend gave me a little sewing time ...

I put three borders on this one ...

... (two white borders with a purple one in between)...

It's the final step in getting this 1008-square quilt top finished.

And, I put a couple two-yard pieces of fabric together with a whole bunch of pretty scraps ...

... to make a quilt back ...

... for this quilt top.

So, that feels like a lot of progress for these two.

I just checked, and these two haven't showed up in my UFO list this year, but I mentioned them a few times a couple years ago (See here and here and here.)

 

I'm linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge link party at Jo's Country Junction. 

UFOs by hand ...

This past week, I haven't done a lot of sewing, and what I have done has been hand-stitching.

My Vintage-Inspired English Paper Piecing has been a fun long-term project.

Right now, I'm adding whiteish diamonds around the edges. Finishing this row requires another 50 or so diamonds.

There'll be another row of colorful diamonds soon, but I'm not sure if that's next, or if I'll need more of the white-and-cream.

Even my kitty-quilt-inspector has been enjoying this project!

I'm linking this post to Jo's weekly UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction, and looking forward to seeing what UnFinished Objects other quilters have been working on!

UFO Progress this week

This past weekend, I made some progress on another elaborate quilt back. Lately, in an effort to use what I have instead of buying more, I've been coming up with some really fun quilt backs.

Actually, by piecing a quilt front AND piecing a quilt back: both will be interesting, and both will use LOTS of scraps!

So, here's what's going on with this one. I've been needing fabric for a back to my pumpkins quilt. My favorite thrift store has recently had a "Free" box outside in front of the store. Occasionally, there's free FABRIC in that box, which is pretty awesome.

When this plain brown fabric was there for free (5 yards!?), I was delighted. Even though I thought of having a plain, solid brown quilt back, that felt boring. Besides, I've got lots of scraps.

ALSO - I've been wanting to try a quilt from this book: Country Girl Modern (written by Jo and Kelli from Jo's Country Junction!) ... See the quilt in the upper-right hand corner of the book cover? That one.

The quilt design is called Connect Four. Since I needed big blocks with small scraps, I changed up the size/construction of the blocks to work with the scrappy pieces I mentioned at the end of this post. Similar idea to Jo's design, though, and it's my inspiration. 

In other news, I'm making progress on the latest sock-knitting!

So, that's my UFO report for the week. I'm linking this post to the weekly UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction.

UFOs this week

What have I been working on in my list of UnFinished Objects?
Mostly ... I finished this baby quilt for my newest nephew!

Crumb quilt stripes!

Little cars and trucks!

Checkerboard quilt back!

I love crumb quilts lately! I guess it's sort of a full-circle thing. Seems like my first-ever blog post was about "made fabric" crumb quilting. Still love it!

I'm linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction.