Our gorgeous photos thanks to Carey MacArthur
On October 4th, before our nearest family and friends, Tim and I were married by our dear friend Eli. We've spent 10 years together, and have created a wonderful community of people to support us in our life together. With only 24 guests, we were able to make every part of our wedding weekend truly special and handmade. It was impossible, considering the joy I've had creating wedding quilts for others, not to make a special wedding quilt for Tim and I to celebrate the occasion.
There is a long legacy of album and friendship signature quilts that has inspired me since my pre-quilting days. Also, there is no shortage of wedding guest book signature quilts in this wedding-crazed pinterest world. I wanted ours to be something special, reminiscent of the beautifully embroidered sampler type friendship quilts from 100 years ago. Of course, the very best examples were made by quilters—each offering their own signed and embroidered block. I wanted ours to have that feeling, but instead of just collecting signatures to apply myself I made sure our guests were able to sign the block of their choice.
Using tear away stabilizer cut to size and pinned to blocks, we asked guests to pick their favorite block and sign the stabilizer. Following the wedding, I spent evenings carefully embroidering each signature or note onto the block. The most pleasant surprise was experiencing the love of that weekend each time I picked up a block to embroider. Most of all I will cherish for years to come the notes from my mother, grandmother and oldest friends stitched in their own hand. Its my hope these stitches will outlast us all, passed down to future generations of our new family.
