A coworker of mine has been gearing up for her best friends wedding all year. She has been all over the place planning parties, a stagette, showers, and helping with the details of the big day. They have been friends since high school, and she wanted to do something really special as a wedding present. She asked me come up with a quilt that would capture her friends crazy and quirky nature, while still complimenting her wedding colors.
I suggested a free-pieced low volume log cabin block inspired by a WIP posted by Anna at Play-Crafts. She took one look and loved it, so we went out and picked up a stack of low Volume fabrics. Some Batiks, a lot of Comma, and some random pieces, with some colorful pops and a gorgeous Disco Dots backing in teal, and we had a quilt!
The blocks are 12″ finished. I cut a ton of random strips from the low volume fabrics, and built them up log cabin style randomly around the center piece. KT sent me her favorite pictures from the last year, and I used Iron on photo transfer paper to attach them to the blocks. Next time I may print right onto the fabric, as the transfers have a very bad habit of melting near heat, and they did not want to secure properly.
I quilted the entire thing in straight lines in a windmill pattern, so the lines are all in different directions, skipping around the photos. The blocks were sewn together randomly so there is technically no up or down to the quilt. This way no matter how the quilt is laying she can see the pictures.
I double stitched the binding. I like the look of 2″ binding, it turns over snugly and has a low profile around the edges. The black really sets off the quilt. I have a really easy technique for finishing the binding, I am working on a tutorial.
I had so much fun making this quilt. All free pieced, no borders, no rules! A very freeing experience, and I think is one quilt option that will make another appearance in the near future!
Happy Stitching!
Stacey