Clarisse's Wedding Quilt

Hello friend,

How are you? I hope you're enjoying being back to the routine of the school year. Another three weeks for us here before Ben starts KINDERGARTEN! I'm so excited and nervous -- just like he is. I am going to miss him so much, but he loves school and I know he will enjoy it tremendously.

Before our Christmas in July series, I teased about being done with the Wedding Quilt for my cousin Clarisse and her new husband. Here, finally, are photos of the finished quilt!



Photo by the 5-year-old

Let's hear it for a finished (massive) project! Yay!

I decided to attach the binding with the machine, rather than by hand, and it worked out great. I have found those little hair clips to come in very handy with this process. I just go veeeeery slowly and check the underside of the quilt compulsively to make sure the binding is caught.






I forget if I talked about the quilting: I just stitched straight lines 1/4 inch to the side of each major seam between blocks. The result is simply checkered. I basted the heck of that thing but still ended with a lot of puckering. I think it is time I invested in a walking foot...

For the back, I pieced a bunch of my leftover rectangles into a row, added some of the wedding fabric to one side, and a large piece of the plain aqua to the other.



Here it is all done before washing:






And here it is fresh out of the dryer:












I'm so glad that the embroidery held up quite well in the wash!






The quilt finally made it to France and into the home of Clarisse and Emeric, just in time for their first wedding anniversary. (I read recently you have one year to offer a gift to newlyweds, so whew! Just made it!)

And check out who joined them just a few weeks later:






Congratulations to the new parents -- and yay for a quilt that not only provides coziness for their beautiful baby girl, but also totally matches their new couch!!

This was definitely a labor of love, but I am so glad I made this quilt and documented the process. Great experience! And it makes my heart happy to know my dear cousin and her little family can enjoy my handiwork in their home.


If you're interested, you can check out the previous posts about this quilt here:
- Inspiration
- Work in Progress
- More Progress
- Almost There

Have you made a wedding quilt before? Did it take you a year like me?! Have you tried out Kathy's Block (from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking II) before? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!