My best friend Laurisa got married to a wonderful man recently so of course my wedding present to them had to be an extra-special quilt. Laurisa has always had impeccable taste and artistic sensibilities. So when she designed a wedding theme based around love birds and birch trees I knew I had my inspiration.
The result you see here is my interpretation of Laurisa’s wedding sketches and I think it is the best quilt I have ever made. The quilting design worked so nicely I want to try it again in the future. I’ve always had trouble quilting large blankets on my regular sewing machine so to accomplish this one without all my usual swearing was a triumph. (One day I will squeal with glee over buying a quilting arm, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.)
For those of you interested in the technical side of things this is a queen size quilt made entirely of cotton and appliquéd with satin thread. For the quilt process I pinned the quilt layers together on each block and then replaced the pins with a free form scroll work pattern in the middle. The top of the blanket is sewn in a sideways loop pattern like clouds and the bottom in long vertical sweeps to emulate blades of grass. As for the tree, it is a brown fabric overlain with cream to make up the bark of the tree. The birds and leaves were attached loosely in a three dimensional style thanks to advice from my friend Erika (thanks!).
The quilt has two lovebirds in a nest (the Bride & Groom) and the third bird on the branch signifies Charlie, their 4-year-old son. Both the colors and quilt pattern came from the wedding design. I hope Laurisa and her Groom enjoy this quilt as much as I did creating it. Congratulations again Mr. & Mrs. Dixon!
Tons o’ love went into making this quilt, but there is even more in their marriage.
Rebecca (aka MsCraftypants)
Remarks