Beginning with December 19, 2017, I had 3 nieces and nephews getting married within a 9 month span. When my first nieces married nearly 11 years ago, I decided to make her a quilt. So the “traditional” wedding gift became a quilt. So this, the first in a series of three, will be the 9th wedding quilt I have made. And it, like the others, was a pure labor of love.
I typically start the process by asking the bride and groom if they have any requests…favorite colors, themes, must haves, must avoids, etc. All this bride and groom gave me to work with was…’We like Blue”. So with that, the creative process began, with a trip to the internet for inspiration, which was provided by one of my favorite quilters…Judi Madsen. (See her amazing work at greenfairyquiltsblog.com). I “super-sized” her design to create the queen-sized version, placed on-point.
The process began by sitting at my computer using Excel to “draft” the quilt design. Once the design came together, I dissected it into the blocks and units to create this beautiful quilt. Once the design was set, fabrics were selected, cut and grouped. When cutting fabrics for a project, I like to group the pieces for the units they will create. In this case, I clipped them together with binder clips, but I have also used Zip-Loc bags or baskets to accomplish this setup.
With the “blueprint” as my guide, I started assembling the units in alphabetic order (with the exception of “E” which somehow got out of order.) Working with such large pieces, the progress came quickly. Within a couple of evenings sitting at my 1950-something Singer (a gift from my mother) the top was completed.
And there the quilt sat for a couple of weeks. I had a couple of “customer” quilting jobs that I needed to get done first.
Sometimes, quilting can be the best way to procrastinate quilting. I was hesitant to begin quilting this masterpiece. I have been trying to “stretch” myself as a quilter and this quilt offered a lot of open space to experiment. It was daunting. The quilts was loaded on the machine and ready to go for about a week before I was brave enough to take the first stitch.
One of the custom elements I tried with this quilts was to change thread color for different areas of the quilt. I used white, navy and the bright blue. I wish I had some green-toned thread to match, but white had to do. Between the custom quilting and changing of the threads, the quilting took about 14 hours over a very long weekend. But 14 hours has never been spent so well, or yielded such awesome results.
All of this comes together to complete one beautiful quilt that I hope will provide years of warmth and comfort for a cute couple whom I wish years of health and happiness.
Congratulations, Cassidy & Bryce. With love, Uncle Paul
Uncle Paul's Quilting Company 