My next big challenge

My next challenge is an antique double wedding ring quilt that is partially done.  This quilt was all hand pieced, and if you look closely at the fabrics you can tell they are the real deal, old and older.

This quilt has a long family history, and when my customer asked if I would consider taking on this challenge I was both honored and humbled.  I would love to finish all that was started here, thinking of the original quilters, and the struggles they went through just getting fabric, cutting with scissors, not rotary cutters, and using what they had on hand.  My customer was able to talk with the quilt maker before she passed, learned about the fabrics used and it's history. Finishing this quilt has been on her "to do" list for several years

One row is completed, and then there are stacks of partially finished melon shapes.

Being hand pieced, there is a lot of wonkiness in these blocks.  It is interesting how the assembly process is different when piecing by hand.  I have made similar patterns, and I did not put them together this way.

One of the unique or creatively pieced aspects of these blocks is that once the small pieces are stitched together, they are then just pressed to the correct size.  You can see how the fullness in this block is just ironed into shape.

To finish this quilt, there will be a bit of unstitching, and restitching.  I spent a lot of time making up templates so I can get a definitive size to work with.  I thought this would be fairly easy, just trace a finished block, and go from there.  That didn't happen.  There was just too much variance in the blocks from one to another, so several trial templates, piecing and re piecing scrap fabric, I came up with a block that matched quite closely.

Having the templates, I can work with the blocks I have and fit them to the template.  I was able to find a cream fabric that closely matched.  Not exactly, but I don't know it that is even possible. While trying to match fabric, I found that the background fabric used had it's own variations.  I think it will all work together, and keep the integrity of the current piecing.

This will keep me busy for some time I am sure, and I will post about my progress.

Thanks for reading, I do appreciate it.

Esther