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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bouquet for a Golden Wedding

We took a caravan trip to sunny Hastings for a very special mission, to hand over the gift of a quilt.  My sister Kathleen and her husband Dennis will shortly be celebrating their Golden Wedding but unfortunately we will be away travelling on the actual date.  But there is nothing wrong with an early gift, is there?  50 years together is certainly a wonderful achievement and I have been quietly working away on a shaggy quilt for them both.  “Bouquet for a Golden Wedding” features all sorts of soft floral fabrics set against green, to give the look of a cottage garden.  And for a 50th wedding anniversary touch, I added golden  flowers appliquéd against a white background.
DSCF7988 Kathleen and Dennis with their anniversary quilt
I made the appliqué blocks first, then a whole heap of the three layer floral blocks, floral square on top, then a  winceyette (flannel) square, and a green background square, all secured with two corner to corner quilting lines.  All these blocks were laid out on the living room floor while I crawled around arranging the blocks.  You know what it’s like, you just can’t have two pinks together, and perhaps I  need a bit more contrast just there.  Rather than sewing the squares together in rows, I tackled the construction by stitching a series of 9 patches together.  With a shaggy quilt, there is no extra quilting to do, but oh my, all that snip, snip snipping that has to be done! 
DSCF7196 Time to snip some more seams
A quick wash, and the quilt was hung up outside to dry on a breezy sunny day, and finished off in the dryer to make sure those snipped seams are really fluffed up.  Stitched the label on and there, all done and ready, with plenty of time to spare.  That’s certainly a good feeling!
DSCF7941 50th Anniversary quilt

1 comment:

Katie said...

What a comfy cozy looking quilt!