Christmas comes early for crafters

I've always liked the look of the Double Wedding Ring quilt pattern, but was never ambitious enough to try it.  Then I saw this pattern called  "Metro Rings" by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.

The pieced arcs are done with strip piecing, and then cut with a specialty curved ruler called the "Quick Curve Ruler".   I haven't got much experience in cutting curves using a rotary cutter, so when my local quilt shop offered a class on the "Metro Rings" pattern, I signed up.  Nothing makes muddling  through a new technique more fun than doing it  in the company of fellow quilters!

We have some homework to do before the class which involves cutting the strips and sewing them into strip sets.  I have decided to use Christmas fabrics for my quilt,  so  I have been sorting through the stash and pulling out the reds, greens and golds.  Haven't sewn anything yet, but my sewing table is covered with fabric strip combinations:

Even the sewing machine got called into the act:

It was fun to go through the fabrics and select sets of 5 strips that played nicely together. In each set I've chosen  a gold metallic fabric to use as the center strip.  I'm hoping that will make a nice design element in the finished quilt.

Taking pictures of the strip sets helps me to remember what gets paired with what while I'm sewing them.  As long as I had photos....I had to use them in a blog post.  :-)

Happy Sewing!