Wedding Ring Quilt

What can be more romantic than a double wedding ring quilt? Although this pattern is often thought of as a twentieth century quilt it appears to have evolved from a very old design. The motif of two interlocking rings used in the wedding ring quilt goes as far back as the fourth century when it was used to decorate roman cups. These cups were made of glass decorated with connecting mental rings.

Another early example of interlocking rings thought of as an inspiration to the creation of the wedding ring quilt is found in the gimmal ring. These rings were popular in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. They consisted of rings that could be interlocked. During the engagement one was worn by the man and the other by the women. When they married the two rings were fitted together to be worn by the wife.

The double wedding ring quilt pattern was first published by capper's weekly in 1928. This publication added a bit of mythical romance to go with the pattern by writing, "when some good but unknown man conceived the idea of a double wedding ring ceremony it gave his wife an equally good idea. She worked two circles into a double wedding ring quilt."

A wedding ring quilt made much like the double wedding ring is in the Shelburne museum, dated 1825-50. This wedding ring quilt is titled pincushion, but the actual double wedding ring quilt pattern appears to have been rarely used until the 1920s. Part of the difficulty in tracing the earlier use of this pattern is the fact that over time it was made under around 40 different names. Just a few are; rainbow, around the world, pickle dish, coiled rattlesnake, endless chain, king tut and friendship knot. The great variety of names illustrates how differently the wedding ring quilt pattern was visualized in various periods and regions.

It appears that in the early wedding ring quilt the pieces of the rings were first sewn together then appliquéd on solid fabric. Around the beginning of the 20th century women began to sewing it together as a pieced wedding ring quilt. Whatever the method it was a difficult wedding ring quilt to make.

It has been suggested that the popularity of this wedding ring quilt during the depression era was due to the fact that many scraps could be used. This reasoning doesn't make sense though as a good deal of solid fabric had to be purchased for the background of the wedding ring quilt. An exception to this might be the nine-patch variation of the wedding ring quilt. This pattern included scraps in the centers instead of the outer ring.

The double wedding ring quilt was usually made up for good or special occasion use. It’s far from imagination to have children being allowed to jump on or even play on a bed topped by this lovely wedding ring quilt. In an interview with an elderly woman telling about her cotton sack quilts she explains about one exception to her usual use of sacks for fabric. "Now, that wedding ring quilt over there. It's domestic. That's not made from sacks. That's material from dresses. You could buy dress material for eight cents a yard. You could make a dress for eighty five cents."

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