Last month on QUILTsocial I worked through the first steps of making a Double Wedding Ring bed runner all the way from cutting the pieces to sewing curved seams using the Dreamweaver XE. This week I’m finishing it up – right to the bias binding!
The Dreamweaver XE
The last thing I did last month was to make these arc sections – half of which had light colored fabrics on their ends…
Light ended arc
and the other half had dark colored squares.
Dark ended arc
The next step is to sew these arc sections to the block centers – the weirdly shaped pieces shown below.
Block center
If you’re following along, you’ll need to mark the center of the edge of the block center with a pin. The center of one darkened arc is aligned with this pin.
Aligning the arc
The end of the center section is aligned with the seam between the square and the first section of the pieced arc, so that they meet ¼” in from the end of the center section. You’ll see this easier in one of the following photographs.
Aligning the pieces
Three pins is all you need to join these two pieces together. Just make sure that there are pins at the middle and at both ends.
Three spots pinned
The curved seam is easily stitched by sewing slowly and gently pulling to straighten out the seam. Check out my post from last month to see more about sewing curved seams.
Sewing the seam
Sew up to the pin that is holding the end of the block center and arc section together.
Sew up to the pin
Sew right off of the tapered end of the block center to complete the seam between the center and the arc. Notice how the end of the block center extends past the seam between the end square and the pieced arc. This will ensure you have enough fabric to sew the next arc to the second side of the block.
The seam ending
Press this seam with your iron in whichever direction it wants to go – it doesn’t really matter which direction the seams are pressed. Here’s the finished seam between the dark ended arc and the center of the double wedding ring quilt block.
The completed seam
This step now needs to be repeated with all of the block centers. I’ve got 12 blocks to sew for my bed runner so I’ll keep sewing with the Dreamweaver XE and tomorrow I’ll add the second side to these blocks.
This quilt is amazing when finished!!
This is part 1 of 5 in this series.
Go to part 2: Taking the fear out of piecing Double Wedding Ring blocks
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8 comments
I was gifted a half done double wedding ring where they sewed the colorful pieces together, put the arches together with 18th-1/4 inch ( sort of) seams, and didn’t give any template or patterns for the inside of the arches or the bigger background piece. The pieces of color are larger than any patterns I have been able to match with, even after I fix the seams to be 1/4 inch.
Any ideas on how to make a pattern/template for the missing pieces?
Hi Joan,
I think I would press under 1/4 inch along the sides of a few of the arches and lay them down on a paper so that the edges at the ends of the arches were right beside each other (ie make the arches look like they would in the finished quilt). Trace onto the paper along the folded edges and then add 1/4″ all around. Use these shapes to make the templates for the large background pieces and the inside of the arch. I would just make a few and try seing them together to see if they fit before making a bunch. Hopefully that would work. Hope this makes sense!
Christine
I’m thinking about making this quilt but before I can begin I need to know how much background fabric to buy for a queen size quilt. Can anyone help me with this?
Hi Joyce,
In my March 2019 posts I talked more about how many pieces you need to cut from each shape to make different sizes of quilts. Here is the link: https://quiltsocial.com/the-anatomy-of-a-double-wedding-ring-quilt/
You can also find more info on the Accuquilt website: https://www.accuquilt.com/go-double-wedding-ring-bed-runner-pattern.html
Hope that helps!
Christine
Thank you so much for this tutorial I have been wanting to make this quilt for a very long time, I even have the templates for it but still afraid to try it but I am going to work on one this winter.
Thank you for the great information on sewing curves. This quilt is on my bucket list, I just have to get my courage up before I attempt it.
Go Cecilia Go! Start with a sample block.
Thank you for the info on sewing curves! You make it seem pretty easy. I’m going to watch the rest of this series…I would love to make a Wedding Ring quilt for my Daughter! 🙂