A couple at my church recently tied the knot and of course, I wanted to sew a quilt for them. Being an avid
pinner, I saw some really neat quilts that were made to look like carved initials on a tree. Here is my inspiration:
Neat right? I've never seen anything like it before. The hardest part was picking out the backing fabric. The wedding colors were purple and silver, which is a hard combination to find in fabric at the moment, but their invitations were silver and yellow. Perfect! That color combo is everywhere. So I waited until the right fabric came along and snatched it up along with a purple fat quarter and a grey/white polka dot for the binding.
There wasn't any tutorials or instructions out there, but to be honest you don't need any. It's a very organic and flowing stitch pattern. I just sketched it out directly on the fabric with a water soluble pencil after I appliqued the hearts.
Yep, I said hearts. :) I did something different from the inspiration quilts, I had 2 hearts. I did their initials and wedding date on the front and then added a Scripture verse on the back using the purple fabric. For the front heart I simply stitched a bunch of lines around the perimeter of the heart, leaving the edges raw. I was going for that rugged/hand carved look and after a few washes the edges should fray beautifully to achieve it. For the back heart I did a traditional zig zag stitch to applique it. A bit more of a polished look befitting the Scripture verse.
After a little wiggling to get everything lined up it came together beautifully. Only downside was that my 'good' machine (ie the one with all the tools for quilting) busted so I ended up pulling an all nighter on my other machine to get it done. I literally started it after 9pm and finished at 8:30am - the day of the wedding! But it was sooo worth it, they loved it and that's the most important part of any handmade gift. I just wish I remembered the take a photo of the quilt prior to giving it to them. :)
 |
| The front |
 |
| The back & the newlyweds :) |
Would you share with me the size of this quilt? Did you buy a 108 inches wide fabric ?
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the exact size, maybe 50" x 60"? It was a lap size quilt, I know that much. It's been so long and I finished it up the morning of the wedding that I didn't have time to properly measure and take photos. The yellow/gray floral was 44"/45" wide, the purple fabric was from a fat quarter and the khaki was a scrap. I think the brown was 44"/45" as well, but I can't remember. I used the calculator found here (http://www.quiltersparadiseesc.com/Calculators.php) to figure out how much fabric I would need for both the front and back. All the fabrics, including binding, came from Joann's. Using 108" wide fabric would make it easier since you would have no seams. But the seams were hardly noticeable once it was quilted. Hope this helps! :)
Delete