Wedding Quilt Finally Has a Wedding

I’m pretty sure that this quilt has been sitting in my closet completely done for at least two years.

I pieced the disappearing nine patch top several years ago starting with six inch squares, anticipating that my nephew and his girlfriend of many years would certainly be announcing a wedding soon.

Early last fall they finally announced they would be getting married on July 3, 2020. When I heard the date I knew I was ready. If only the world was ready now.

They will be going ahead with their wedding with just a small number of immediate family members present for the ceremony. They’ll have a party in celebration when everyone is safe to travel again. They’re thinking sometime next summer.

So I’m getting this all ready to box up and get on it’s way to Wisconsin. I made a label last night and got it all affixed to the back of the quilt. This is the first label I’ve made myself. My previous labels were made by a friend who has an embroidery machine. I did the lettering on my Bernina, which only allows memory of one line at a time.  The batik fabric I used for the label is in the front of the quilt and is also the border.

I had to program in each line letter by letter, manually line it all up, and keep the lines even by hand. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but am not happy with the way I zig zagged the edge. For the next quilt label I’ll figure out a better way to finish the edges.

The quilt is made from beautiful blue and green batiks that I pulled from my stash. To me, it feels like cold water. And my nephew is finishing up his masters degree in biological sciences and loves the outdoors, so I selected a fishy quilting design stitched in variegated blue thread.

If you didn’t know the fish were there, you may never see them! They are pretty subtle, but really fun. And I love the way they make this a little whimsical.

This was the first quilt I made where I used up every single block that I had made for the front. The back includes a strip of the disappearing nine patch blocks across the width of the quilt.

The backing is a bright and cheerful green batik that I got at a local sale. The backing fabric was also used for the binding.

I’m always a little sad to box up a quilt and send it away. I just love holding it and burying my face in it. But I’m happy to know that this one will have a happy new home!