At Last

At long last, I am adding a new post to the blog.  You won't be surprised that I've been busy, when I tell you my youngest daughter is getting married.  This is the wedding quilt.

Here's what it looks like on a bed.  The wedding colors are pink (my daughter's favorite) and gray and white.  The bridesmaids will be wearing a hot pink color the bridal shop calls Begonia.  The groom and groomsmen will be in charcoal gray.

I adapted the pattern from an old book by Trudie Hughes.  There are two blocks:  Bright Hopes (Brackman #2571) and Snowball.  Trudie's quilt was set on point.  I set mine on the straight.  I pieced the blocks on my Singer treadle, and quilted them one at a time on my Pfaff Select.

When the blocks come together, they form interlocking rings in gray and pink.  I quilted hearts in the white centers.  This was easy to do because I was only quilting one block at a time.

After all the blocks were quilted and set together, I added the borders.  They are quilted with a 4-strand cable.  I love cables.

I hope to finish the binding today.  Then it will be ready for the wedding guests to sign with permanent ink.

All of this wedding stuff has made me remember this Bride's Bouquet quilt top.  I bought it at a flea market several years ago.

The blocks are four Bride's Bouquet blocks set so the handles come together in the center.  Setting them this way also let the quilt maker put them on the straight, instead of on point.

Here's 1/4th of the block.  From the fabrics, I can guess that it was made in the 1940s.  It's machine pieced rather badly, with lots of puckers.  The background fabric is mostly a coarse unbleached muslin.  Some of the fabrics, like these, are in good shape.  Others are rotting or tearing.

As you can see, I didn't pay much for it.  (I took the sticker off after I took the picture.)  My husband often jokes that I'm running a rescue mission for unwanted quilts.  When I bought this one, I thought I could save the blocks and put them in a new set.  Now I'm not sure it would be worth the work.
One of the reasons I bought the top was the pattern (Brackman #4052).  I didn't think I'd ever want to make one of these myself.  There are so many strange shapes to cut, and so many Y-seams to piece.

But look at this!  I actually made this block, thanks to Eleanor Burns.  I had recorded this episode of her show on public television, and yesterday I finally decided to try it.

Eleanor simplified the cutting, and I made the test block with feedsack scraps and a solid green handle.  It's not perfect, but it actually lies flat, which is more than I can say for the blocks in my old top.
I could never have figured this out on my own.  This is genius!
Be warned, however--there are still 7 Y-seams.
If you'd like to make the Bride's Bouquet block, the pattern/directions are in Eleanor Burns' book Victory Quilts.

You can order it from Quilt in A Day Publications  or from any other book retailer.

I'm not sure when I'll be posting again, but I'm not quitting!
Happy stitching today!