A Heartfelt Wedding Quilt

I'm finding that nearly everything I sew is a gift and I love that. I love thinking of who will be getting the blanket/quilt and trying to make it representative of them. From fabric shopping to cutting and calculating and all the way to finishing, it takes a lot of time to make a quilt. So you better believe I like you a heck of a lot if I give one to ya! But really it makes me feel less selfish I guess, I love and hoard fabric. Its kind of a problem. So if I can attach that to 'but its for so-and-so' reasoning then it feels justified! Also, I have way too many ideas, color/print combinations, rabbit trails and what ifs to keep all of them to myself. I love the inspiration I get from designing for a loved one and I also get to push and surprise myself! Now that my latest quilt has been given and well received, I can share this giant heart quilt!  

 

Its a full size quilt done in my cousins wedding colors. I decided to play around with more decorative stitching and appliqued the quilt top, leaving raw edges so it will get that rag quilt effect with a little time and laundering. I finished it with a purple backing and binding and hand ties in gray and purple so they would blend in with the quilt. The heart was built out of 6" squares and the stripes were scraps from the fat quarters the squares were cut from.

I didn't get my favorite quilt hanging on our back shed finish photo with this one. Anything larger than twin size hangs in the dirt there though and I was down to the wire finishing the hand ties at my aunts house before the bridal shower! But I do need to scope out a spot to take pictures of larger quilts for the future!

Luke's Pinwheel Quilt Top

A while back I began and finished this quilt top, originally intended to be flying geese actually. I didn't take into account the orientation of the stripes in my cutting and sewing of HSTs so the multi-directional effect on the flying geese pattern just wasn't going to work for me! After playing around with what I had, I settled on a pinwheel pattern instead. And now months later, its still just a twin size quilt top waiting to be finished.

Breakdown: I used sheets and pillowcases I had gathered from thrift shops in varied red/white/blue stripes and one blue twin size sheet. Using a 6" square, each quadrant of the pinwheel was made using the HST method. I really like this method! But next time I won't use a directional print. Lesson learned! The quilt top is 5 columns and 7 rows of pinwheels (35 total and 140 total HSTs).

I'm torn between using it as a duvet cover instead of a traditional quilt. Luke isn't ready for a big boy bed yet but if he were to use it as his main bedding, a duvet is much easier to wash than a full quilt. But a nice warm quilt is unbeatable. Torn.