Wedding Quilt For My Sister

My sister got married yesterday and I made her and her new husband a quilt as a wedding gift. Now that they've seen the quilt, I can finally post pictures online!

I started brainstorming ideas a few months ago. I was trying to get some inspiration and insight, so I texted my sister and asked her how long she and her fiancee will have been dating when they get married. She said 365 days. They were getting married on their one year dating anniversary! After that, the number 365 just stuck in my head and I wanted to find some way to portray that in a quilt. Lucky for me, I stumbled across the free quilt pattern "Bartow" (designed by Carolyn Friedlander) on the Robert Kaufman website. The pattern is basically a series of half-inch wide strips, so it was easy to make it as big as I needed to. I purchased a layer cake of Moda "Modern Neutrals" and got to work! The colors reminded me a lot of my sister's taste, but they were also colors I would pick myself, so that definitely helped me stay motivated. The final product is exactly how I pictured it in my head. The colors and the design and the quilting are all very modern and I feel like this quilt is the best representation (so far) of my quilting style. I took these pictures before I left New Jersey because I knew I would want to post pictures from Texas as soon as the quilt was gifted. I hope you like it as much as I do! :)

The last row had a gap at the end, so I knew I wanted to add some sort of heart to fill the blank space. I decided to embroider their initials (A+A for Allie and Abe) and the date. I used a thick stitch on my regular machine, and if you look closely, it is far from perfect, but it gets the job done. I added the heart after the quilt was already quilted, so you can see the applique outline on the back of the quilt. It actually looks kind of cool and worn-in, like the quilt has already been loved and used for a few years. :) 

I explored a new quilt shop and found a great fabric for backing. The green matches perfectly and the polka dots are a little bit smudged and imperfectly spaced. 

I went to Jo-Ann's and found a perfect binding that was gray with random small hearts. I am so happy with how this quilt turned out. :)

The professional photographer took a few photos of Allie and Abe wrapped up in the quilt on their wedding day, so as soon as I have access to those, I will post them too. This was a really fun one, but now my brain is already on to the next project! Stay tuned to see what else I have up my sleeve!