Inspiration Series: Purple Wedding Ring

The double wedding ring quilt was said to be inspired by the rings on 4th century Roman cups. Another example emerged in the 15-16th centuries with the gimmal ring. During an engagement, each partner would wear a ring. At the marriage ceremony, the bride would be given the rings, which would then be interlocked for her to wear as a wedding band. The interlocking rings is the same symbolism which encapsulates the quilt version of the marital union. The design first appeared in an October 20, 1928 Capper’s Weekly, and continued to be popular throughout the depression…and still today.

“There is a most romantic quilt.”

Rhoda Rosa’s daughter, Double Wedding Quilt, a novel by Patricia Wendorf

in most literary texts, purple signifies wealth, royalty, and status

Let me be clear: wealth, royalty, and status are not why I chose purple for this quilt! I chose purple because I was originally going to give this to my sister as a wedding gift, and purple is her favorite color. (Keep reading to find out why I never gave it to her.) I used 1930s reproduction fabrics for this quilt, as it first gained widespread popularity during that same time. I love the soft purples with the contrasting green and yellow in the corners.

Insider Info

 

Never again! Have you ever said this after finishing a quilt? This was by far the hardest quilt I have ever made, and I’ve made my fair share. As I said before, I intended to give it to my sister who had recently married, but after putting that much work into it, I decided to keep it. Selfish, I know…but nobody’s perfect.

I embarked on this quilt project by taking a Pat Yamin class at the Mid-Atlantic Quiltfest I attend every year. I used her template pack and got to work. This quilt design appealed to me because I could use lots of little scraps as the pieces of the rings are cut individually. The frustration set in with constructing the quilt top. There are lots of curvy pieces to sew together, which requires slower, more careful  sewing. Once the top was together, it did not lay flat due to the many curved pieces. I solved this problem by pinning the mess out of it when basting and it worked! This helped to keep the quilt from distorting as I quilted it. I opted for simplicity in the quilting with straight-line crosshatching and then stitching in the ditch around the rings. Although I feared it would be distorted due to all the curvy piecing, it came out totally flat, and it is actually one of best quilts I’ve ever made.

What about you?

I can’t be the only one who’s decided to keep a quilt originally intended to be made for someone else. What’s your story?

Quilting

Crosshatching in the center and simply stitching in the ditch elsewhere.

A classically, beautiful quilt design that never goes out of style.

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