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| Tessie, my new sewing assistant and fabric coziness tester. |
One of the best features of my house is that I have a dedicated sewing room! My basement is partially finished and it's the perfect size for all of the fabric and notions I've accumulated over the years. It's also nice to have my sewing machine permanently out and ready for use without hogging the dining room table. In the middle of a creative streak? Close the door and no one has to see my mess!
With having a new home, I've also been branching out into other crafty endeavors -- furniture refinishing, curtain making, table mosaic-ing, and so on. It's been a lot of fun to put my own stamp on the house, and I'll definitely write about that another time.
For now, here's a quick catch-up on two wedding quilts I made!
The first one I made was for my friend Ben, wayyyyy back in 2016. We've been good pals since high school and he married his sweet gal Sandi that summer. I didn't have the quilt finished in time for the wedding, but I sent it off well before the one-year mark that etiquette allows, so I think I'm OK. :)
The hardest part of this quilt was knowing which colors and fabrics to pick. Ben doesn't care about design unless it relates to cars or engineering, and I wasn't sure about Sandi's home decor preferences. So, I figured a black, gray, and white quilt with some traditional framed blocks and classic-looking prints would be appropriate for any decor. I think I bought most of the fabric from Craftsy's and Connecting Threads' in-house lines, but I also used some from my stash.
It's pretty big -- bigger than a lap quilt, but not quite a twin. I was happy to hear that they loved it, and it's currently in their guest room!
Next up, a quilt for one of my best friends, Lorianne, and her now-husband Dave. Lorianne and I met when we studied abroad in London during the summer of 2004. We hit it off right away, but it wasn't until a few years later when we figured out we worked just a few blocks away from each other in New York City that we became really close. We started meeting up regularly for lunch, seeing plays and concerts, and going to Red Sox games at Yankee Stadium. Eventually her friends became my friends, and vice versa!
I didn't keep my quilt-giving a secret this time around and got her to spill her wedding colors well in advance of the big day: navy, gray, and a hint of fuchsia. Lucky for me, the two most recent quilts I made were navy and gray, so I already had some awesome fabric on hand. (I always buy too much -- this time it turned out to be a good thing!) I rounded out the fabric selection with some blenders from V & Co. Also, knowing Dave might not be big on hot pink, I made sure to slip in the anchors just for him--he's a boat guy.
Lorianne is a stylish, modern sort of lady so I decided on a more contemporary pattern of half-square triangles to form diagonal lines. I really like the effect and would definitely make a quilt like this again! I tried to let the colors do the talking instead of the prints, and I think that approach works well for this pattern. The quilting shadows the diagonal lines.
In a small miracle--especially since I was in the process of closing on my house--I managed to finish this one in time for the wedding!
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| Quilts get wrinkly after they are washed for the first time! |
I still have a ways to go before I'm caught up on my recaps, but hey... progress! I'm off to wash one just-finished quilt before sending it to a brand new baby. Then, I plan to cut the fabric for the next one on the list -- a kid's quilt to be raffled at a charity dinner next month. (No pressure or anything!) A wild weekend!
