Corner Lot Wedding Quilt

I finished a new quilt!  And *just in time* for the wedding it was intended for.  I started it with 3 weeks to craft, and thought I'd have plenty of time, but each step took longer than anticipated.  Oh well, I love the result.  The pattern is called Corner Lot, and is available to buy on Craftsy, either just as the pattern, or for a kit in several color options.  I went with the kit option, with the "Modern Hand Drawn" fabrics by Lily & Loom.  It came with 2 layer cakes of 10" precut squares, a yard of binding, and 4 yards of backing.  While I LOVE the finished quilt, I wasn't impressed with the pattern writing.  The fabrics were good quality, but the backing fabric arrived stained.   :-[  Thankfully I was able to work around the staining.  The binding they sent was a stripe, and I improvised and cut it on the cross grain, so I could show the stripes to their best advantage.  If I had more time, I would have tried to do them on the bias, but time was of the essence.

Because some of the squares are white, and some are very pale pink & mint, I went with a white batting.  The only white that Joann's had in stock with a 1/16" thickness, so it's a fairly thin quilt, but being all cotton it should hold up to washing and drying on high heat. As I said above, I finished it just in the nick of time.  I actually had to leave TN for the wedding in NH with the binding sewn on the front, but not flipped over and stitched down on the back.  I did that part while staying at my parents house the day before the wedding.  I finished it Saturday morning, for a Saturday afternoon ceremony! 

I've since heard from the bride that when they got back to their apartment in Brooklyn, the heat was out, and it's only 64 degrees in there.  They've spent their 'honeymoon' as it is, snuggled under the new quilt.  Mission accomplished!

Giant Star Block Wedding Quilt

On June 24th, just a few days before I was set to leave for vacation in Florida, my husband came home with an invitation to a wedding.  A wedding that would take place just 5 days after I got back!  Because a big wedding gift was not in our monthly budget, and because I believe in giving handmade gifts for such monumental occasions, I decided to see what I had in my stash to make a quilt.  I found 6 yards of a pretty cream calico.  Since I would have to make it quickly, I picked a simple pattern called the Giant Star Block Quilt from the blog In Color Order.  Best part, it only required me to pick up 8 fat quarters from my local quilt shop.  I cut the pieces and binding before leaving, and I'm so glad I did, because I came home from vacation (in summer, in FL) with a cold! 

I was sidelined for a few days before I could dive back in, but got back into it on Friday, where I got the blocks pieced, and the rows together.  Then yesterday I spent every single minute of my day stitching my butt off, to get it ready to take to the reception which started at 7:00pm last night.  With a little help from my amazing husband doing a bit of pinning the quilt sandwich, trimming googly threads, and pressing my binding, we, mostly managed to finish it on time.  I actually finished at 7:13, we pulled out of the driveway at 7:15, and got there at 7:30, with no one the wiser that we were late! 

Trip Around the World Wedding Quilt

A few months ago I posted in the quilting discussion boards, asking for some options on a Trip around the World quilt, for my best friend's wedding.  (You can see the post here: Opinions Needed - Trip Around the World Quilt  Thank you to all the kind ladies who offered opinions and advice!)

In the end I decided to go with the 10 color option, and I am really pleased with how it came out.  Especially since I finished it a whole MONTH before the wedding!  The pattern is a classic, called the Trip Around the World, chosen because of my friend's love of travel, and partially inspired by a poem that was read at my wedding.  Each fabric is indicative of a place/environment on earth, many of which relate to the very different places that Alison, her fiance, and I all grew up.

Purple - Migrating Cranes for Alison's graduate thesis in costume design, Madame Butterfly, which took place in Japan.
Arctic Blue - Abstracted Mountains for the icy cold poles that only the bravest travelers visit.
Mallard - Quiet Waters for the tropical islands we imagined running away to during grad school.
Hunter Green - Forrest Dreams for the forests in the Pacific Northwest where they now live.
Leaf Green - Meadow Grass for the Midwestern prairie where her fiance, Dan, grew up.
Saddle Tan - Jazzy Zebra Stripes for Africa, where Dan served in the Peace Corps.
Squash Gold - Forest Ferns for the fall foliage where I grew up in New England.
Cinnamon - Tonal Crackle for the south western desert where Alison grew up.
Wine - Sunset Ginkgo Leaves to represent Asia.
Deep Garnet - Lavish Woodgrain as a solid frame to build their life together.

This is the poem that helped inspire the quilt, by Wendy Paris:

I want to go everywhere with you. 
I want to go to Italy and Israel and down the street.
I want to lie on a raft under the sun in the South Pacific with you and float and float and float.
I want to go to the tallest building on the highest mountain, in the biggest city.
And I want to go up on the roof with you and look around.
I want us to pool our talents and pool our resources and create together, that which we have not been able to create independently, alone.
And I want you in smaller ways, too, right here, holding my hand and kissing me.

The center is quilted with 4 hearts.  The rest is just crazy free-motion quilting.  The backing is a warm chocolate brown, with the same brown thread used for quilting it.  I really like how the brown blended right into all those jewel tones.