finished wedding quilt




Finally I finished our wedding quilt. Once the sewing started it came together fairly easily. I found some lovely fabric for the borders and backing that I just love. Everything was going swimmingly until I got to the binding. Holy hell that took forever. There must be a more efficient way to sew the binding but as it was all by hand it cost me several hours in front of the tv. Not that I mind, but time is precious commodity at the moment.

In making this quilt I truly fell for quilting (as if I need another craft to love). I think I was done in when I went to a quilting store to get the remaining fabric for the border and backing. There were so many modern, beautiful, printed fabrics; I was smitten. I hope I can find time to make quilts in my future as It’s so nice to make something that feels like it has a use and will last for ages. That being said, I’m not sure what to do with this quilt as I’d like to preserve it with all the messages from our wedding guests. Ideas? I’m thinking it might look nice hung on the wall if i could find the space.

wedding quilt in progress

quilt 003

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.

quilt 001

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.

quilt 002

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.

quilt 004

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.