If you’ve been around the blog a bit, you may have seen my finished Double Wedding Ring quilt that I made for my sister-in-law’s wedding a few years back. After that quilt made its debut on the blog I was surprised to hear about how many quilters shy away from double wedding rings!
When I originally made this quilt I had only made one quilt prior to it in my quilt career, I was essentially a baby quilter at that point, with only the tools I had found across the internet to go on.
When I heard that experienced quilters were avoiding the pattern, I realized that I had this secret weapon in my pocket making double wedding rings not only obtainable, but easy, for even the newest of quilters, and why not share it?
My secret weapon is an online course through Craftsy called Contemporary Curves: Double Wedding Ring Quilts
I found quickly that you can only learn so much from pictures, or even 5 minute videos. Especially when those resources are only kind of similar to what you want to do. You end up having to stitch together multiple techniques you think will fit and hope it all works out.
Taking a class all about the exact pattern you want to make, is by far the quickest way to get the best information, as well a solid plan of attack for the pattern. One way to do the whole thing, from start to finish, no guessing involved.
And oddly enough, now is the best time to look at online quilting courses because Craftsy is currently holding an ongoing reduction in price to help crafters and quilters out during COVID and is now offering year long subscriptions for only $3 instead of the normal $79!
So you’ve never heard of Craftsy
It’s okay, prior to finding the Contemporary Curves quilting class, I had never heard of it either.
Craftsy is essentially the Youtube of crafting and is absolutely enormous with classes ranging across pretty much every craft you can think of, from cake decorating, to jewelry making, the list is endless.
But front and center on the homepage, first on the list, is the one closest to my heart, the quilting section.
If you’ve read my About Me page, you might recall that I am a 100% self taught quilter and about 99% of everything I have learned from “How do you even make a quilt?”, to “What is free motion quilting and how to do I do it?” I learned directly from Craftsy classes.
After taking all of the basic classes to learn the general quilt making process, I was ready for my first pattern. My sister-in-law just got engaged and I wanted to make her a quilt. Obviously I needed to make her the one with “Wedding” in the name.
Quickly I found the Contemporary Curves class on Craftsy and after watching the free trailer for it, I knew it was something I was going to be able to handle.
The class itself is about 2 hours long and walks you through every single step of the double wedding ring block process and even as a beginner (I’m talking quilt #2 of my quilting career here) it was incredibly simple to follow along with and easy get a great result.
And when I say 2 hours long, I mean, there was almost no fluff in it. You know, the type of useless information where they are just trying to increase the length of the video.
Every second of the class is geared towards giving you the tools you need to make the blocks with easy and quickly.
Without getting frustrated from the tediousness that most people associate with a DWR.
The class itself is pre-recorded so you can always pause and replay something as many times as you need, and you can do it all at your own pace.
This is not a situation where you have to work your day around tuning in at a certain time because that’s the only time its airing. You can press play whenever its convenient for you, and replay it over and over for every block if you wanted to.
Don’t want a subscription? Click here to get access to Contemporary Curves a la carte with no subscription required.
Is This Class What I’m Looking For?
The class is geared towards a double wedding ring block, but if you are interested in the pickle dish design, it also has sections dedicated to showing you the differences between the two types of blocks in design and how the tips provided in the class apply to both.
The one thing that is a bit of a bummer with the class is that while it does come with a pattern, the pattern is for a table runner, not a blanket size quilt. I was in the market for a wedding gift quilt, so a table runner was not what I was hoping for personally.
But the pattern IS a paper piece pattern.
A paper pieced pattern is hands down the key to making this pattern easy and 100% stress free. When I made my original double wedding ring quilt I just took the paper piece pattern from this class and kept making blocks until I got to a throw size quilt.
Did I order enough fabric the first time? No. How about the second time? Also no. It was my first throw quilt and I was bound to mess up in plenty of places, I just didn’t want it to be in making the stitches themselves, I figured I could always buy more fabric.
But I’ve Never Paper Pieced
That’s no problem, I had never even heard of paper piecing before taking this class. Those two hours of the class show you exactly how to paper piece using the exact pattern.
You don’t have to try and put together information from the internet that uses patterns that are totally different from the double wedding ring.
This class teaches you how to paper piece the exact double wedding ring template provided in the class step by step.
Why is this the secret?
A conventionally pieced double wedding ring has a different template for each section of the ring in order to get the rounded shape.
Each section has to be cut out separately, and organized, and they all look the same, except for slight angle differences making it a pain to keep straight. If they get mixed up you’ll end up with curves that are straighter than others, and some that are more curved than others.
Using a paper pieced pattern, you cut all the ring fabrics to the same dimension and the paper piece pattern does all of the work of getting all the angles perfect for you, and trimming down HUGE amounts of time on the cutting time of the quilt, and all of the tediousness that comes with using the individual template and trying to keep it all organized.
All you have to do is make sure the colors go in the right order, and be able to sew on a line.
Getting the Class
There are two ways to get access to the class through Craftsy.
You can go with an a la carte situation and purchase the class on its own without signing up for a subscription through Craftsy. Just click the “Get Class Access” button to the right of the class title at the top. This will provide you unlimited access to just the one class, with no recurring subscription fee.
Or you can sign up for a subscription to Craftsy and not only have access to Contemporary Curves but every other class (quilting related and otherwise) that Craftsy has to offer.
And if you sign up for your subscription here you’ll get it 97% off!
Going to in person classes has been near impossible over the last year with COVID restrictions and in most cases you are paying significantly more to do in person classes AND you have to actually drive there.
Or you can save the money with a Craftsy subscription, get the same information, and never have to leave your house.
If double wedding ring quilts have been on your quilting bucket list, but you’ve just been hesitant because they seem like “too much work”, then this class is your perfect solution. By the end of this class you’ll not only have to tools and confidence to piece the rings and sew the curves, but you’ll be telling all of your friends just how easy that double wedding ring really is (and actually believe it).
When I was looking for a way to accomplish this quilt Contemporary Curves was the answer I was looking for and with it Double Wedding Rings are actually easy.
It’s about time to cross that DWR off your quilting bucket list.
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