Wedding Quilt

This week I can congratulate my sister in law and her husband for their first wedding anniversary. This is reminding me on the biggest quilt I ever made. I wanted to give them a very special gift for their wedding and of course the first thought was "sew something long lasting". So a quilt! 

For making the quilt more personal I asked my mother in law for some old family fabrics (old bed sheets, tablecloth, ...) She gave me plenty and she also embroidered the monograms of bride and groom. From the grooms side I got only an old shirt of him that has been dark beige instead of white but it turned out to be a good contrast. Also I added a lot of my collected white and beige fabrics.

Because of a lot of other things going on I started sewing only 3 week before the wedding and worked every day to finish. And what can I say: It turned out exactly as it has been in my mind (rare) and I really loved the finished product and can think of nothing I should have done different (very rare)!

It has been quite hard to take photos of that quilt. I had to step on a ladder to get it on one photo lying on the grass. The finished size is about 2,10m by 2,70m. 

The front has the two monograms in the center surrounded by borders of different fabrics. Big triangles helped to turn the center in the right orientation. Already in this state the quilt has been very big. It has been faster growing than I expected - I still had plenty of other fabrics I wanted to try out.

To get a rectangular shape I added two lines of squares separated by the whitest fabric. A small beige border is separating the different zones and all held together by a white all around border.

The backside is pieced with all the scraps from the front and bigger parts of bed sheets. 

The quilting has been the hardest job, as I chose a quite voluminous inlay. The sandwich has been heavy and I had to use the dining room table to find place for this fabric masses. I had very sore shoulders to pull and push the quilt under my little machine. I decided against an all over pattern and used different patters for the different zones. This photos has been made after the first washing, so already a slightly shriveled look. Click on the photos to enlarge them for seeing the details.

You can't probably see on the photos, but the quilt turned out very straight and flat. There are no sloppy parts or waves in the surface. I have been so happy with the outcome and I hope it will be in use for a long time ... 

Happy anniversary N & C!

A bientôt,
Jane