When I started planning our wedding in August 2014, I knew I wanted to include personal elements – touches that would make our wedding unique to us. So, for me, this meant fabric! I decided I would make coasters as favors – we later added beer koozies as well, to get Brad’s “touch” included too! A friend from high school makes bouquets from fabric – even before we were engaged, I knew I wanted her to make our “flowers” for the wedding. I sent her some leftover fabric from the coasters and what she created was stunning. I love having my wedding bouquet on display in our living room to see everyday!
Aside from the coasters on the reception tables, I didn’t have a lot of opinions about wedding décor. Since one of Brad’s sisters was also recently married, we were able to reuse some of her decorations. Most of the credit for the centerpieces goes to my mother-in-law. I took care of the table numbers and she did the rest! It turned out beautiful! Under each lantern was fabric – after the wedding, she gifted all of the fabric to me, which got me thinking…
Another idea I had during the wedding planning was a wedding quilt. I had seen some ideas on Pinterest. Instead of signing a guest book, guests would sign a fabric square. I didn’t end up doing this, but my matron of honor, Laura, took this idea and used it at a shower she hosted. Since she had several squares left, I took it to another shower. I ended up with 15 squares of written messages plus leftover fabric Laura used for the shower.
With all this fabric and beautiful squares filled with messages of love, I knew I had to make a wedding quilt. Due to my small business, I didn’t have the time to make this a priority. So, the squares and the fabric sat in my closet for a long time! This past summer I learned about a new-to-me quilt block and decided to try it out with my wedding fabric. I love the scrappy look!
Once I finally had enough of these made, I decided to start laying out the various elements of this quilt to see how I could create something beautiful and meaningful for us. I added borders to the message squares and set those in the middle. I was one square short, so I made one with our name and wedding date which was perfect. After that I added the scrappy blocks around the center section. I think I was short a few, but it doesn’t take long to make these blocks, so I was able to add to it quickly.
Originally, I wasn’t sure what the finished size would be. I decided I wanted something big enough to cover the end of our bed or big enough for both Brad and I to use while lounging on the couch. With the large border pieces, it ended up being 78” x 78” – it just covers the top of our king size bed. The only fabric I had to purchase was the backing – the rest was all gifted to us!
I knew I wasn’t up for quilting something this size, so I found a long arm quilter in Noblesville who was able to quilt it for me. She did a great job! Once I got the quilt back from her, I completed it by adding the binding. The final step was washing… A year or so ago a customer asked me to create her wedding quilt. She used the guest book idea and had all of her guests sign fabric squares. I made her quilt with a picture of she and her husband in the middle. I used the iron to heat set the fabric markers – I did everything right, but when I washed it the markers bled all over the quilt. It was devastating. I cried. I’m sure she cried. It was awful. So, when it came time to wash our quilt, as you might imagine, I was very nervous. I took lots of “before” pictures!
Brad reminded me that we used the correct fabric markers and I followed the instructions – the quilt would be fine. He’s good at calming me down 🙂 You can’t imagine the relief when I opened the washer and found our quilt in perfect condition! After drying, it’s all crinkling and perfect. I felt so many emotions while cuddling with it last night – gratitude, joy, pride and, most importantly, love. This quilt is a wonderful reminder of those in our lives who love and support us. It also reminds me that love takes work – lots of time and effort went to creating this beautiful quilt. Likewise, lots of time and effort goes into creating our marriage day after day, year after year.
peace.
Anne Brock 