DWR Quilt Along: Layering, Quilting & Binding the Curved Edges

This post will be short and sweet, because there's really only one part of this process that might be foreign to you (sorting out the binding at the curved corners). 

To prepare the backing, you'll cut your yardage into two 1 1/2 yard pieces. Sew together down the length to make one large panel. Baste, quilt (I did free motion) and trim off the excess batting and backing.

Prepare your bias binding using your preferred method. Personally, I love these instructions from The Dread Pirate Rodgers. Her method looks a little scary at first, but her instructions are amazingly detailed, informative, and there's virtually no fabric waste, which I love.

Start pinning your binding on one of the end rings, making sure to leave a tail. It's best to start at an end because you'll have plenty of room (without any pesky corners) to attach your tail ends once you've worked your way around the quilt top.

Pin until you reach a corner. Now there may be a better way to do this, but this method is what's worked well for me in the past. Make a baby miter, finger press, and pin in place. You don't want to do a full-on miter with all the folding (like you would with a regular square corner) because it gathers up way too much fabric at the corner, and it's nearly impossible to miter the back side.

You may have to work your binding a little bit to get everything in place before you pin. 

Once you've finished pinning the entire top and begin sewing your binding down, this is how you'll need to navigate the corner. I made 1/2" binding, so I sewed until I was 1/2" above the corner and pivoted to go down the next curve.

Once you've finished sewing down the top of the binding and start flipping it toward the back, here's how you'll situate the fabric at the corners. At your first corner, go ahead and clip down the binding that's on either side of the corner into it's rightful place, so there's not a bunch of excess fabric floating around. Grab the fabric bunched at the corner...

...and following the natural inclination of the fabric from the miter you made earlier, tuck the right side under the left using your finger until there's no excess and the binding wants to lay flat with no puckering.  Once you have the front in place, the binding should naturally fall into place on the back as you fold it over.

 If you machine sew the back of your binding (like me), you'll sew down one side and pivot at the corner, just like you did for the top.

And voila! You're finished! I immediately wash and dry my quilts after binding because it crinkles up nicely and hides most of my flaws - there's nothing like a good run through the machine to hide your quilting sins ;)

And here's a crapload of pictures. I document every last inch of my Double Wedding Ring quilts because they're so difficult to make!

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DWR Quilt Along: Assembling the Quilt Top

Grab your first two rows, and flip the 2nd row over so that they're right sides together. Line up the centers of the first rings in each row and pin. Line up the outside edges (to the left of the center) and pin.

(NOTE: You might have noticed, but I wasn't paying attention and sewed melons along the bottom of the 2nd row when I wasn't supposed to. Since it won't technically hurt anything, I left them on. Just pretend they aren't there because it doesn't change anything about the assembly.)

 Work your way over to the right side and pin.

 Pin until you reach the end where your 2.5" x 2.5" intersection square is.

The top square should be 1/4" longer than the one on the bottom, so make sure you leave that part hanging off the end.

Once you're finished pinning, flip the rows over and start sewing your 1/4" seam. You'll start sewing from what will be the (left) outside edge of the quilt.

Stop sewing when you reach the seam at the end. You don't want to sew all the way to the end because you need those pieces hanging loose.

Pivot the fabric a little bit so that the four corners of your intersection squares meet up like this...

 Once you have them lined up, start pinning the second rings together.

 Once you have that end pinned, line up the centers of the second rings and pin. Now start pinning the rings together in the area in between the end and center.

When you reach the point where the intersection square is sewn to the end of the arc, make sure you fold back the tip of the center medallion so that it lines up properly (I have it pinned in one spot so that it won't move, but in the photo you can see I still need to line up the very tip of it by moving it down a little bit)

 Finish pinning the rest of that section.

Remove sleeping dog from fabric, then proceed to next step...

Now pin the other half of the rings, remembering to work from the outside in (pin the outside edge and center first, then the in-between area) It should look like this when you're done pinning the 2nd rings together.

Flip the rows over, and before you start sewing, make sure the seam allowances are lying in opposite directions (to make the fabric lie as flat as possible).

When you're ready to start sewing the 2nd rings together, you want to start the seam a little bit ahead of where the 1st and 2nd rings meet. This is to make sure all four intersection squares are nice and secured together at the center.

 

When you're done sewing the 2nd rings together, it's a good idea to open the rows up and take a peek at the "right" side. That way you can see if everything lines up properly before you move on to the 3rd rings. Don't worry if the intersection looks a little bunched up, because the paper causes this. Once you finish the top and rip the paper off, the whole thing will lay a lot flatter.

 Plus, it looks a lot better once it gets a good ironing. See?

Flip the rows back over the wrong side, and start working on the 3rd rings. Find the point where you stopped, and pivot the fabric at the intersection so you can start pinning the 3rd rings together.

 You're going to pin and sew the 3rd and 4th rings together just like you did the first two.

And just in case you're wondering at this point, "is it normal for my fabric to be all twisted, bunched, and crazy while I sew?" Yes, it is normal. Embrace the madness!

When you're done sewing the rows together, you'll notice that the ends don't line up. That's okay - you should have 1/4" hanging out from two of your squares (my pink square is completely finished off and measures 2" x 2", while the blue squares are finished on only 3 sides and have 1/4" of extra fabric on the raw edge). The excess fabric will be hidden when you bind the quilt.

To finish your quilt top, you'll attach the remaining rows exactly the same way. It's easy once you get the first one under your belt, because the assembly is virtually the same for the rest. The 1st and 2nd rows correspond to the 3rd and 4th rows (1 and 3 are exactly the same, and 2 and 4 are very similar - the only difference is the melons on the bottom of row 4)

Here are some photos of my rows once they've been completely attached. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the finished top - I've been working a lot this week and haven't had a chance to snap photos while it's still light outside!

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DWR Quilt Along: Assembling a Row

Good news! This step is pretty short and sweet, and repeats a lot of what we covered in the last post. For those reasons, originally, I was going to include this step in with the Quilt Top assembly. But ultimately, I decided to keep it separate 1) to give you all more time, and 2) because things get pretty hairy when you assemble the top, and I wanted to keep those directions as simple as possible. I think breaking out the rows as a separate piece will make things a lot more manageable, and keep everyone's hair intact and on their head ;)

Alright. So the first step is to find all your blocks for the first row and lay them out exactly how they need to be pieced. Refer back to the pattern if you have any questions about the layout.

Take your first two blocks, and line them up along their center seams (you should still be able to see the seams you pressed with your iron when assembling the blocks).

Just like you did when assembling the blocks, start at the center and align the edge of the center medallion with the outside curve of the 1st block, pinning as you go.

As you reach the ends where the intersection squares meet up, make sure the seams line up. If they aren't, it will be very noticeable once you finish sewing and flip the blocks back over.

Here's another angle.

Now, one thing you might notice once you get to the end is that the intersection squares don't seem to line up properly. THIS IS GOOD. In fact, the one on top should be exactly 1/4" too long. We aren't trying to match the raw edge of the top intersection square with the finished seam of the bottom intersection square. Instead, we want to match it up with the raw edge of the bottom intersection square....the one that tucked away neatly below the finished seam. You want to make the raw edges of both squares line up like you see in the picture below.

Why is this? Because we'll need this extra 1/4" as a seam allowance when attaching the 1st and 2nd rows together. Dont' worry - it will all make sense when we start assembling the quilt top in 2 weeks. Promise.

Alright. Now flip your block back over to the side with the paper templates (mine has been flipped over, you just can't tell in the photo because there's no paper on the intersection squares - only the arcs). DO NOT start sewing at the raw edge of the intersection square. We need that 1/4" overhang free for when we attach the rows.

Instead, start sewing at the seam that's 1/4" down from the edge. See photo below.

When you're finished, flip the block back over and press the seam flat. You block should look perfectly lined up, except for that one 1/4" seam allowance dangling past the edge on each side of the block.

Your first two blocks should look like this once attached...

Grab your 3rd block and line it up with your fledgling row. Repeat the same steps you used to attach the 1st and 2nd blocks.

When you're finished, the row should now look something like this...

 Grab your 4th and final block (nosey dog not required for this step) and attach just as you did the others.

Congratulations! You've completed your first row! Row 3 is an exact duplicate of this one, but rows 2 and 4 are much easier to assemble because they contain only partial blocks and there aren't as many complicated seams to match up.

In case you want a better look at the finished product, here's a closeup of the front...

...and a shot of the back as well.

As always, feel free to post any questions in the comments or email me directly :)

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