I've been wanting to make a real bed sized quilt for Tim and I for some time now. I spent a lot of time mulling over what kind of fabric I would use and what it would look like. I thought the double wedding ring quilt would be for my bed when I bought the fabric, but I quickly realized it was better for our living room. I decided triangles would make more sense. An almost austere quilt its so damn simple, and yet hardworking with a light weavers denim making up 90% of the blue halves. Soft and bright is the other half - the frothy white caps of antique muslin. I'll fill it with wool batting, and plan to hand quilt with my very favorite cotton hand quilting thread. I haven't decided if I'll bring curves in with the quilting, or if my hand stitches will be just as straight and rigid as the pieces. It won't be in quilted in the ditch. That much I do know for certain.

These colors are really not my thing, and I let this quilt sit unfinished for eons because it's way too girly for my taste. I think I know just the person to love it for a very long time. It was still a fun super quick project and I'm pleased that I've finished it. Here's to finishing what you've started!

Marbled silk, woven japanese cotton, light and soft cotton lawn, and the deepest most wonderful red there is - its all in this churning ocean waves. 

I love triangles. They're by far my favorite shape to piece. They always make a quilt feel like its dancing, swirling, tumbling. The marbled silk in this quilt feels like such a treasure. It's a subtle field in motion for the swirling triangles, like starlings swirling across a blustry sky. Reminds me of this song. Available in my shop. 

It's been quite the hiatus, and it seems the most appropriate that my first update of the new year reveal my progress on the medallion quilt. It's so incredibly satisfying to hang it up and photograph after every few rows, otherwise I end up looking only at bits and parts as I work on it. I'm starting to have serious anxiety about if I'll actually use this one, or safely store and preserve it for posterity. Seems cruel to pack it away in the dark somewhere, even though its the best way to preserve it. Thousands more hand stitches to go, I guess I have some time to decide.

Not "modern" - I know what you're thinking. I don't mind, I've decided that working with a traditional pattern like this teaches me a lot about technique and patternmaking, and also I just love the double wedding ring. There's a reason they've been around and reproduced so many times, and I think that making quilts like this are an important part of my practice. There are some "rules" about double wedding ring quilts that have been passed down over the years and I've tried to ignore a few when I can. One being that the 'block' centers and melon centers should match, and wait until you see the binding -- it certainly will break any 'traditional' rules that quilters follow when selecting a binding. The color is perfect in terms of color theory and the effect I'm going for. You know it must be good if I actually want to sew the binding, since it usually is the most boring step.

The hand quilting pattern is from a double wedding ring quilt (probably made by a group of mennonite women) on display at the American Folk Art Museum. I'm not really sure if its exactly replicated here since I am hand-drawing it all, and lifted what I liked about it from a photo. It's great to not be working on squares/triangles for once, and now I have all sorts of ideas about incorperating curves into more of my "modern" projects to come.