A Wedding Quilt

I somehow seem to have got myself thinking I need to make quilts for people as wedding presents!

It started with my friend Lizzie's wedding 2 years ago, where I decided to make her a library quilt.

It was the first quilt I had ever made (actually to date the only quilt I have ever made!) and for some reason I decided I would just do my own thing and not follow a pattern or anything! It seems to be the way I work best, I enjoy the planning and problem solving stages, often coming up with solutions during my sleep. It is just the actual making bit I struggle to motivate myself with! So this quilt should not have taken me as long as it did but my procrastination definitely dragged it out a lot longer!

This is a picture of the finished quilt top. I don't seem to have actually taken a picture of the thing sandwiched and quilted! It was by no means perfect but I was pretty impressed with it for a first attempt at making a quilt.

My next quilt is for my brother and sister-in-law and again I've decided to do my own thing and make up a pattern! I'm making a double sided quilt in a kind of his and hers style. My brother's side has some blocks made up of his old shirts and logos from school/uni things he did.

I've also found some fabric which represents Paris and Bali where they have been on holiday together.

And cross-stitched a bride and groom with the date of their wedding. 

Now as you can see their wedding was in March and since I haven't included a picture of the finished quilt you might gather that I am behind and haven't finished it yet...and you would be right! I didn't get it finished for the wedding date and then when the pressure for that date had gone other projects took preference. But I am aiming to get it finished and wrapped up for Christmas in the hope that they won't be expecting it then and it will be a nice surprise for them. But Christmas is a busy time of year for crafting so I'm putting in the hours now to hopefully have it finished in plenty of time and I can then crack on with the Christmas crafting! (Plus there has been another wedding since then which I haven't even started a quilt for yet!)

Work in progress Wednesday

Today for my Work in Progress Wednesday is a bag I am making for a friends birthday present.

She is obsessed with Union Jacks and last year I stitched her a tapestry Union Jack cushion pictured below. It was my first ever attempt at tapestry and looking back it was a bit ambitious as I didn't even have a chart to follow! I worked out that it probably took me over 90 hours to stitch the front and its a bit wonky as I didn't realise I needed a frame to hold it straight but I was so pleased with the end result and so was my friend I think!

So this year I had to think of something equally as good to make her! I thought I would go with the Union Jack theme again and decided on a bag. I have used some fabric from my stash to make a patchwork flag and stitched it onto a background of blue gingham.

This is as much as I have done so far. I decided to use embroidery thread to blanket stitch around the edge. And you can probably see that the blue cross is wonky and doesn't match up but that is the charm of handmade right?! I need to do some handles and I was thinking of a bag organiser inside as she is quite unorganised! But I need to get a wriggle on as her birthday is the 17th!

I'll have to start thinking of another present for next year soon!

Happy crafting!

xxx