wedding quilt in progress

I finally made some progress on our wedding quilt. Instead of a guestbook, we had our guests sign squares of fabric to be sewn together. While I am still very happy with this idea (I’d much rather have a quilt than a guestbook) it probably would have helped if I’d ever made a quilt before. Ever.

Not that it’s going badly, but it started out a bit rough. Mainly because a handful of squares, cut a the last moment before the wedding, were not only different sizes, they were not even really square. On top of that, without any guidelines for signing, some guest wrote all the way to the very edges of the fabric, leaving no seam allowance at all.

After arranging the swatches into their pattern, I traced new square guides onto each piece, so I would have a uniform size while trying not to cut off bits of what people wrote. I then basted each strip together and got to sewing, first making vertical strips and then sewing those together.

I knew from the beginning it would not be perfect, and I’m quite happy with how it’s coming along. Next I plan to put some edging fabric so its a bit larger and then I’ll have to choose a backing. I’m not sure how I’ll stitch the front to the back, since I don’t want to detract from the writing.

Any ideas from seasoned quilters out there? Actually an suggestions would be helpful really.