Progress on the Wedding Ring Quilt

Freshly-quilted rings, with a simple echo pattern.

Last Saturday, I was able to quilt the rings.  This is such a nice size to work with, because it's not such a struggle to maneuver, and you can actually finish a step in a reasonable amount of time.

I decided to use a clear polyester thread with the walking foot to quilt the rings, with a cream cotton in the bobbin (on the backside).  Even with the new batch of variegated threads I bought, nothing really seemed to work for all those oh-so-colorful rings.  The clear thread keeps the emphasis on the rings and doesn't fight with the many colors. 

Here's a shot of a freshly stitched section against the window with the sun shining through the needle holes.  The fabric will soon relax and fill in those spaces.

 
Such an honor to be working on this quilt.  Every single swatch of fabric is from my Aunt Rosita's scrap bin -- every bit used in some other quilt she'd made.  I have a little photo of Rosita attached to my sewing machine (which was hers, as well).  She's watching over me, offering guidance and encouragement.  I can hear her saying, "Looks good, Kid!"  "Aw, this is so wonderful."  "Kayleigh's going to love it!"  "Thank you so much for finishing it for me."  [How's that for positive internal talk?]  Thank you, Rosita.

Here's a shot of the back to show off the quilted rings.

My mom decided that we should give this quilt in June at the wedding shower, instead of August at the actual wedding.  This way we have a better chance of explaining some things about it to the Bride and her Mother, neither of whom are quilters--yet.

Still left to do : the white spaces in between.  I'll save that for a different weekend, as that requires some tracing and marking, and getting the stencil patterns to fit the spaces I need to quilt.