Another wedding quilt! This one was made for my friends (and neighbors) Kiki and Roland in June 2014. It was a quick finish — time got away from me, and I started it just a week before the wedding.

I used Paris-themed fabric, because that’s where they got engaged. There’s a key print in there too, a reference to the since-defunct “love locks” of the Pont des Arts bridge, which they had visited and incorporated into the event decor.

Jenny Baker’s Giant Vintage Rose Tutorial is perfect for showing off big pieces of fabric, and it comes together SO fast — it’s just twelve half-square triangles and four squares. Perfect for when you look at your calendar and go, “Oh, SH*T!! The wedding is in a WEEK!?” 😱 😜

Here it is on the design wall, before all the blocks were sewn together.

I free-motion quilted with stippling.

The binding was all done by machine as I didn’t have time to hand-sew it to the back. The first time I tried machine binding (on a quilt prior to this one), the results were disastrous. I had since avoided it like the plague, but because of the time limitation on the one, I conquered my fears. The method that worked best for me was this one and I love how it came out.

The method I had tried before this was the one where you apply the binding to the front, then fold it to the back, clip, and stitch in the ditch from the front, the idea being that you will catch the edge of the binding on the back… blind. I do like how it looks when done properly, but my feeling is, whichever method you can execute best will look best. I had a much better time catching the binding when I could see it, and it allowed me to use a nice narrow folded edge (rather than making the overhang larger in hopes that it would catch more easily on the reverse).

I used clear thread for the binding because I don’t like using different colors in the top and bobbin, and I didn’t want the black thread to be visible on the light-colored quilt back.

I wash my quilts before gifting so they get soft and crinkly. This label was sewn in with the binding to save time. Tutorial from Sassafras Lane here.

Two years and a baby later (I’ll share his quilt in my next post!), I hope this gift still brings Kiki and Roland warm memories of that exciting time.

Hugs,
Hayden

My friend Evan got married!

We met in Kindergarten and grew up together in the background of this picture. Obviously, after 25 years of friendship, a quilt was in order.

A few months ago, I asked Evan for his and his fiancée’s favorite colors, and decided to make a two-color quilt for them with his response. I had been itching to try Accuquilt’s Hunter’s Star die and this seemed like the perfect excuse to give it a whirl.

Evan relayed Tiffany’s color of choice, saffron, while he chose grey. (Gold & silver!) I picked out two Timeless Tonga batiks and got to work.

I had a guild retreat in early June, so I ran all the fabric through the die cutter one afternoon in April. In the time it took me to watch two bad movies, I was done cutting! I made a single test block, and held onto the rest of the pieces until retreat time. My fellow mod Brian pointed out that I probably should have made my test block before cutting out the ENTIRE quilt, which is solid advice. I was just having so much fun cranking that die back and forth that it never even occurred to me!

These are all the pieces that make up the quilt top. Packing them for the retreat was cake; they barely took up any space. Which was good, since our carpool was jammed tight!

We had a BLAST at the retreat. There were lots of times my face hurt from laughing so hard. While Jorge and all the other guys were out in California for Evan’s bachelor party, I was zipping away at the wedding quilt.

This was our home away from home – Ladore Retreat Center in Waymart, PA.

This quilt is a chain piecing endurance test, but the payoff is hugely gratifying. I went for the 60″ x 72″ size, which uses 30 blocks comprised of four “mini” blocks each. So for three days, I was the quilting version of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, and my workstation looked like this:

I came home with 120 of these:

Once you get those baby blocks done, the rest goes quickly. It’s so exciting to see the stars come together at this point.

The coolest thing about this quilt is Eleanor Burns’ method for keeping the center of the star flat. Since so many points converge there, a typical 4-patch construction would create a lot of bulk. The pattern instructs you on how to get a nice flat center that looks like this:

Squashing and pressing those centers feels sooooo satisfying.

It only took me a couple more nights at home to finish the quilt top. Not long after, I had it basted, free motion quilted, and ready to bind.

I used my machine‘s lettering and decorative stitches for the label. I like playing around with those features that I hardly ever have a reason to use.

It washed up so soft and crinkly. Jorge helped me photograph it on the roof… and gave it a test snuggle.

Congrats on tying the knot, Evan and Tiffany!

Hugs,
Hayden

P.S. Jorge made them a quilty wedding gift too! Check out his wall hanging. The pattern is from Heather Jones’s book, Quilt Local. So proud of my quilter-in-training!

The fabrics are Timeless basics (neutral Soho Solids + a dark Java Blender batik) and Liberty Lawn (from when a fabric store near my office had a bunch of rolls for $10/yd!).

Heather’s pattern was inspired by tile work, and Quilt Local is all about finding quilt inspiration in your everyday surroundings. As we headed down from the roof, we noticed this window in our building’s hallway resembled the quilt!

Love it. ❤

Hugs,
Hayden

It feels fitting that this should be the first quilt to chronicle on QIQ.

Jorge and I made it back in 2013, shortly before our friends Caitlin and Pete got hitched. As we chose the pattern, agonized over a color scheme, and prepared the pieces, I took tons of photos so I could share them after the wedding on my completely fictional “blog”. Obviously, the pictures sat on my phone, and then my computer, for years. Doomed to a life of solitude and loneliness, collecting meta-dust.

Until now!

It took me three years, but I have a blog now dammit, and hell if I’m going to let all this behind-the-scenes shutterbugging go to waste.

So, back to the quilt story then…

When I heard my friends were engaged, I knew right away I wanted to make them a quilt. Jorge, my quilter-in-training, was eager to help, so we made it a joint venture. I visited the bride’s Pinterest board, knowing she’d be collecting inspiration for the big day. Sure enough, I found plenty of images to inform the color scheme, settling on this succulent bouquet to translate into a fabric palette. Jorge and I agreed on a pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts.

We cut out the pieces, mixed them up, and got to work. All the fabrics are by Timeless Treasures.

After lots of sewing, pressing, trimming, more sewing, more pressing, and more trimming, a pretty pile of blocks was born!

We laid it out on the biggest section of floor we could find in our apartment. These were the pre-design wall days. We used an old sheet to prevent the blocks from sweeping the floor. Each block was lettered and numbered with a masking tape label so we could keep track of placement as we put it together.

Here’s the top hanging out on our full-size bed at home, before basting and quilting.

We opted for straight line quilting on a bias grid. Water soluble pen worked well to mark it up.

At the time, I had never made anything larger than a throw size, and didn’t give much thought to the fact that this was a 90″ x 90″ quilt. And we were sewing on my little Janome Magnolia. If someone tries to convince you that you can’t quilt a project of this size on your DSM, just show them this picture. You can wrestle a monster through this thing if you’re willing to put up with the back pain that follows.

The pieced back — Jorge had a lot of fun with this part.

Bound, labeled, ready to wash.

Washed and soft and crinkly, and no more blue lines!

No quilt is complete without a label.

It ended up matching the wedding colors – as well as Cait and Pete’s home decor – beautifully.

I will never forget their phone call to us the night they opened the box. ❤

Last year I made a throw pillow to match for Caitlin’s birthday. She sent me this ridiculously cute picture of Pete test-driving it at home later that day! Snug as a bug in a rug.

I’ll be sharing my past, present and future quilts (and rando sewing projects) here on the blog, so be sure to subscribe using that lil’ widget in the sidebar. See you again soon!

Hugs,
Hayden