To Have & To Hold

Hi!  And welcome to Melva Loves Scraps!  Thank you so much for stopping by and being part of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 15 Blog Hop.  I hope that you will take the time to look around my blog and get to know me.  I also hope that you will become a "follower".  You can sign up to receive notifications via e-mail of my posts or, if you are a bloglovin' fan, you can easily find me there as well - there is a button in the right side of the page.

And, in case you didn't know it... there are prizes to be won!  For a chance to win a copy of 100 Blocks, Volume #14, simply leave a comment about how you would use the block... Would you change the color of the rings?  Use the block in a sampler quilt?  Or perhaps a label? Or even a ring bearer's pillow?  Let me know!  

Now, believe it or not, "To Have and To Hold" is a product of a project gone bad.  A customer had asked for a quilted wall hanging and drew me a sketch of his vision... We had agreed upon wedding rings as they were a symbol of eternal love, rather than the cupid.  The entire story really is not important here, but in the end the customer and I agreed that his vision and my creative style were not meshing and the project was abandoned.  

I "auditioned" several different fabric choices for the rings and the diamond before finding what my mind's eye wanted.

Here they are... 

  

I felt that this one was too neon-like... 

This one was too bronze-like...

This was my very favorite.  It reminded me of a ring with the engraving on it.  Sadly, I appliqued it onto fabric that was far too thin (as a practice) and  it didn't look right... Ugh!   AND even more sad, there was not enough of this fabric remaining for another block... Back into the stash! I Liked the look of this one so much that I considered using some  bridal runner fabric that I use as interfacing that has a similar filigree engraving look, but in the end changed my mind... 

As you can see, I went ahead and used the button-hole stitch to outline the rings and used a zig-zag to mark the diamond cuts to help determine how much more detail was needed. (The diamond looks a little wonky on this one...)

I was finally pleased with my fabric choice (rings, diamond and background) and the amount of stitching that was needed... 

All that was needed then was a border!

Since the original project was abandoned, I have not had the opportunity to use this block in a quilt... yet.  But our youngest daughter's wedding is in April and I have plans to use this block as part of the label for their wedding quilt.  Though I will likely be auditioning fabric again as they are having silver rings, not gold.  Back to the stash!

So tell me what your thoughts are... 

(remember you have a chance to win a copy of Volume #14) Have you thought about it?  How would you use "To Have and To Hold"?  It could be fun as a 40th anniversary gift with a ruby stone instead of a diamond... 

Melva