Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my Birthday, so I decided to give myself a present. Lately I've developed a fascination with hand sewing. Coming from a background in garment construction, the concept of hand sewing was foreign to me. Yes, there are times and places (though few and far between) where hand sewing is necessary but I would never think of hand sewing an entire garment. So when I started quilting, the thought of making an entire quilt by hand seemed daunting and impossible. I greatly admired anyone who had the time, patience and skills to do so but I never thought I could be one of those people. That's not to say I don't like to work by hand. I love to cross stitch and I find hand stitching therapeutic but I never thought my stitches could be small or consistent enough to effectively quilt by hand.

Thanks to the wonderful world of the Modern Quilt Guild, Flickr, Swaps, Virtual Bees and Blogs I've really expanded my skills over the past couple years and with that I've gained more confidence. I've always been one to take on a challenge. I hate to run, but I decided I wanted to run a marathon so I set my mind to it and made the impossible possible. Three years ago I completed my first marathon and loved it. So I'm adding another thing to my bucket list. Call it my marathon quilt. I've decided I want to made an entire quilt by hand. And I'm really excited about this one.

So, I gave myself a birthday gift. I bought a set of English Paper Piecing templates and I'm finally cutting into my coveted City Weekend stash to make myself a Double Wedding Ring Quilt. I've always wanted to make a Double Wedding Ring, and I've been looking for the right excuse to cut into one of my favorite lines so I think this is the perfect project. I'm still in the planning stages. I have an idea that's a little out of the box for this one but I'm not sure if it will work. I'm going to try and get some sketches up before I start cutting. I'm also a little nervous because the templates for the arcs are smaller than I anticipated but I think it will be okay because most of the prints in this line have very small repeats, save a few. I wanted the pieces of the arcs to be a little bigger, but what can you do. It should be okay, right? What do you think?

I'm putting it in my head that this quilt will take me at least two years. I don't want any pressure on the timeline. It will be one of those things I can just work on intermittently when we're sitting on the couch, or I'm having a sewing date with Liberty and Ramona. Wish me luck. This one has me fired up!