Monday

Exploding Heart Quilt

I've been planning a wedding quilt for my nephew and his bride for quite a while. I wanted it to be special so I searched and searched for the right pattern and fabrics. Once I decided on the exploding heart pattern, it still took me some time to find the right fabrics. I wanted some nice colors without the fabrics coming off too feminine. During the time I was searching I straightened up my sewing room and came across a layer cake I purchased a few years back. It was perfect. 

I did have a problem to overcome if I used a layer cake. It would waste lots of fabrics with the process of making quarter square triangles. That's where working in a quilt shop really came in handy. I explained the problem and a coworker suggested I borrow one of the Accuquilt cutters we have at the shop. There's a die cutter for the triangles and I could manipulate the 10-inch squares through the cutter to get more pieces than if I did the traditional QSTs. I couldn't wait to give it a shot. 

Accuquilt

I cut and cut and cut then I cut some more! It was so fun, efficient, and I really got a lot of triangles out of the 10-inch squares. In an afternoon I cut enough pieces that I was ready to make the entire queen-sized quilt top.


I began sewing the triangles together and I really thought I would be sewing them for days. But once the chain-piecing started it went really fast. It was all going together so well. I was loving the process. And the colors were so gorgeous it never got boring.


Since it's a queen-size project I had to use the living room floor to lay the quilt out. Each row had to be laid out before the next to get the quilt right. It was a challenge moving the blocks around with a cat in the room. He loved to plop down in the middle of it all. Once I had all the blocks sewn together I chose a nice green for the backing. 


I chose a nice flowing pantograph to use on my longarm. With all the white space I really wanted the quilting to have a bit of drama. 



My next challenge was making a label. I'm not that experienced with my embroidery machine so I was a little concerned about how to make the label. In fact, my first attempt was way too large so I had to start all over. At least I got the lettering aligned with the heart motifs I used - haha!



I took this photo right before I wrapped it up in pretty wedding themed wrapping paper. I absolutely love how it turned out. 

And here's the happy couple on Sunday after the wedding.