Black Widow's Wedding Party

 Black Widow's Wedding Party

53 x 68.5

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

 NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge

I used a vintage McCall's DWR Pattern to make my quilt. I've been working on a DWR for my granddaughter using that pattern so I'm familiar with it. I decided to join the NYC Mod Quilt Guild Challenge to practice my skills before I had to actually finish a quilt for my granddaughter who hopefully won't be getting married for quite some time. (She's only 9).

Most of the spider web, floral and insect fabrics were in my stash. I further limited the fabrics to black/white, green, orange and purple - not my normal color scheme. 

You may think spiders and their webs a bit creepy for a quilt; however, in Victorian times spiders and their webs were considered signs of good luck. 

I freemotion quilted some flowers in the arcs using my plain Jane DSM. 

And I quilted spider webs in the center webs.  

For some extra fun the quilting on the front glows in the dark. I used a combination of Superior NiteLite and Coats Glow in the Dark threads. 

I had my reservations about the quilt really glowing in the dark after all the trouble it took to use the darned thread on my machine.  (I usually quilt with cotton threads).  I don't have many vices; however, cussing when I'm frustrated or mad is one of them and boy, were the cuss words flying while I was quilting.  The threads kept breaking no matter how I adjusted the tension. Then I tried a topstitching needle and the breaks didn't occur as often.  I was going to rip out all the quilting on this section since that orange thread is actually the bottom thread you are seeing on top. But, between cuss words I decided it wasn't going to get any better than that and told myself it actually looked like dew drops on a spider web. Google "dew on spider web" images and you'll see what I mean. 

I do want to declare that the quilting really does glow in the dark and was worth all those hours spent cussing. 

And what kind of thread did I use on the back? Neon. Except that the purple isn't really neon, I guess.  These are a bit wild for me but I thought they would look good on black and add some fun. 

And they do.  You can really see the quilting that way. (And the quilting mistakes).  

This is the back but from this you can see how the quilting on the front will glow in the dark.  My husband tried to take a pic of the glowing quilt since he's a better photographer than I but he had no such luck.  

So, the back looks like a DWR too.  

The parts that look like they are missing are done in that purple thread. 

One last thing...I added some broderie perse applique butterflies to the top and bottom corners of the quilt. I was going to let them flutter free instead of tacking down the edges but I figured this will be a quilt for the grandkids to enjoy so went with tacking them down completely lest they try to rip them off - not that the darlings would dare to do such a thing. 

Oh, and the binding...it's full of spiders too. 

I'm here to tell you that making a DWR quilt is not at all as difficult as it looks although I did consider it a challenge.  But challenges always teach us new things, build new neurons in our brains, and sometimes excite us or make us stronger or give us a sense of accomplishment or confidence. 

Oh, and that leads me to wonder what category I should enter my quilt into for the NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge...Traditional or Modern? 

I really haven't seen a good definition for a Modern Quilt. I don't even know why there is a separate distinction.  (What do you think?)

Well, this lovely Black Friday I'm linking up Black Widow's Wedding Party to the Traditional category of the NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge.  If you want to see some beautiful DWR quilts you really need to go view all the categories of challenge quilts. 

And, after a finish like that maybe I should get a Whoop, Whoop at the linky party over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.