I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm a bit of an anglophile.
So of course PBS's Downton Abbey was a must watch from the start. In 2013, Andover Fabrics put out a Downton Abbey fabric collection. I jumped on a fat quarter bundle when I saw it on display at a quilt shop. My two worlds collided: English period dramas and quilting fabric!
Even though I had been sewing for years before, patchwork was new to me at the time. I hoarded the bundle for a long time. First out of love, because pretty fabric in my stash always makes me smile. But also, I hoarded the fabric out of fear. I wanted to do the fabric justice and I didn't feel my quilting skills were up to par.
Years passed and I finally felt comfortable with my quilting skills to tackle the Down Abby quilt. I research quilt patterns and settled on a quatrefoil design by Missouri Star Quilt Company. (Thanks Jenny!). And after a year of piecing the patchwork and professional quilting, I finally completed the quilt in 2018. This is Downton Abbey Quilt #1.
The lighting in this picture does not do it justice. The colors are just so beautiful in real life.
All this to say, that I had scraps from the Downton Abbey quilt #1 that I could not let go. Now in 2020, a year after the Downton Abbey Movie release, I started a Downton Abbey quilt #2 using said scraps.
Sew Kind of Wonderful has a double wedding ring style pattern called Metro Rings that has been on my to do list for a while now. The pattern is so versatile. It can look modern or classic. I felt the vintage and scrappy components could work for me here.
After reading the fabric requirements and doing some math to enlarge the size, I found I needed more fabric to complete a king size. But Alas! its out of print and stores are sold out.. so... I searched my stash for a few extra coordinating fabrics to make the strip sets.
In this picture above, the green was a print fabric from my stash. However the the color coordinated well with the other green tones in the DA fabric. Because this was a scrap quilt, I used what I had available for the background fabric as well. As you can see, some of the cream background is solid and some is printed. The print cream is from the DA fabric line, the Dowager's collection.
Using the Quick Curve Ruler take a bit to get used to. But it didn't take long to get a rhythm after cutting so many pieces. And Yes! there are a lot of pieces to cut. But they look sooo pretty all stacked up in piles like this. I was very careful about placement lines on the ruler and I did a good job cutting. I only botched one piece out of the hundreds that I cut. The pattern was very well written and cutting instructions were very clear. I was very impressed at how the pattern specifies how to align all your pieces on the ruler. And it works like a charm.
I can't wait to sew these rings together. I'll keep you posted the progress with Part 2. I might even finish before the movie sequel comes out.
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