Ottoman Rings Update

Back in early June, I took an Ottoman Rings workshop with Tighe Flanagan.  During the workshop, I sewed the lower quadrant of the quilt using a dark Essex linen.

While I loved the fabric combination, this pattern requires a lot of marking and the linen was just too dark for any of my marks to be visible.

So I switched to a lighter fabric.  But my progress was slow for two reasons.  First, there are tons of partial seams and it was a bit fussy (for me) to sew together.  Second, I attempted to sew by quadrant and found myself spending too much time figuring out my color layout before the sewing could begin.  (Other guild members made all their rings from a single color - such a good idea!)

So I've dumped the machine and moved to hand piecing and am loving it!  Hand piecing is eliminating the need for many of the partial seams - there are still some but a lot easier to deal with.  Plus, sewing gentle curves by hand is much easier than by machine.

I'm keeping the quilt spread across my cutting table and sitting there to sew it together.  Assembly is no longer by quadrants - just putting together the quilt from the center out.  Lots of pieces are marked with their piece number to help me from getting confused on where I am in the pattern - this also means that nothing has been ironed yet!

This will be a wall hanging when I'm done although I might go slightly smaller than the pattern calls for.

Have a wonderful day! Patty