The Wedding Quilt

I finally got a picture of the wedding quilt I made for my daughter and son-in-law at their home. I had a few pictures of it 'on the frame' but it's so much nicer to see it in it's place.

I had a wonderful time collecting fabrics that would suit them - it started with a piece of 'bike' fabric several years ago. I made very good use of Swatch Buddies as I built the collection. Haven't heard of Swatch Buddies?  If you are a collector (and who isn't?).....Read my review here.

I added fabrics that had meaning for Lindsay and Paul: a fabric with words about cooking and fabric with an accounting ledger and several with dots and graphic lines since this fits their modern style.

I made 'pennant' style blocks, lots of them!  I had no idea how I would arrange the quilt until I began sorting the pennants. Some were light pennants with dark fabric backgrounds and some were dark pennants with light backgrounds. When I found the BEST FIND OF ALL fabric (with words and bikes) the design came together.

 Some fabrics have bikes tossed all around, some are directional. After I came up with the final design I had to count the blocks I needed - lights or darks, bikes right or left or up or down. I moved my studio tables around so I could arrange all the blocks on the largest wall in my studio. I would put the blocks on the wall, decided what I needed and then label and photograph the blocks on the wall and take them all down again. I didn't want my daughter or son-in-law to see it when they visited as I made blocks and more blocks!

When I had all the blocks completed and on the wall for the last 'final fitting' I hung a quilt over my studio door so my daughter wouldn't see it when she visited - she never asked why it was there!  I think she thought it was to block the sun in the family room so it wouldn't shine on the TV....or she did have an idea and thought it was best not to ask so I didn't have to make up a story. (Thanks Linds!)

I loved making this quilt, playing with so many fabrics and seeing the design come together. And then I had to quilt it!

The quilt is very wide (in case they ever get a king size bed) and it just fit on the Avante. A marathon quilting weekend plus a few extra days and I'm thrilled with how the quilting turned out.

And here is the label on the back. I scanned the bicycle-built-for-two that they used on their 'Save the Dates' and printed it on Electric Quilt fabric. A frame of bicycles was the final touch. The backing fabric is the fabric we used for the table runners on the tables at the reception so it has meaning too. And a large piece of THE BEST fabric is in the middle of the back too.

Now....what type of fabric will I collect next?  I've just done a major clear-out. I think I need to finish some UFOs first!