Quilt No. 018: ‘Great Expectations’

It has been 18 months in the making. Well, may be a couple of weeks in the actual making, but with lots of gaps! This is my first (and possibly last) double wedding ring quilt, made as a wedding gift to good friends. I missed the wedding deadline, and their first anniversary, but managed to get it finished for Christmas.


The finished quilt is about 84 inches square in size, and incorporates lots of new techniques I had to learn as I went along! I die cut the fabrics using a Sizzix BigShot Pro, which alone took several hours. Joining together the arcs wasn’t too much problem, but joining the arcs to the ovals and large inner curved square was altogether a different kettle of fish and took weeks. I definitely got better as I went along as sewing on a curve needs much practice.

Next, I needed to do a whole cloth appliqué to be able to square off the rounds to be able to add the borders. The layering and basting took an afternoon and evening, and then the quilting another two days. Finally, I learnt how to make bias binding for the rounded edges, and a new way to join binding strips which is a lot easier when working with plain fabrics where right and wrong sides aren’t as obvious. A total of 28 feet of binding took a further day to hand-sew into place before the quilt was finished.

It was definitely worth the work involved, and I’m sure the techniques I had to learn to complete it will benefit future projects I tackle. And if anyone wishes to commission me to do a similar quilt, then you’d better be prepared to have a difficulty premium added to the bill!

3 thoughts on “Quilt No. 018: ‘Great Expectations’

  1. Neil; You totally cheered me up by confessing that you missed the 1st Anniversary, as well as the wedding! I would definitely forgive you for being “late” with such a wonderful gift. 🙂 The only tip I can give for sewing curves (I have not done any quilts, but have done a lot of clothing) is to sew a line of SHORT stitches, JUST INSIDE the normal seam line. This will provide a tight line of protection from raveling. Then, make very frequent clips of the edge of fabric, all the way to the stitched line. This will allow you to turn an inside-curve almost completely around into an outside-curve. Works very well in most cases.

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