Whole Cloth Anniversary Quilt

Of all the special custom projects I worked on this month, this one has to be my favourite, not only because I am in love with the finished product, but also because of the romantic story of how it came to be. You see, my cousin and her husband were celebrating their second wedding anniversary, which as per tradition is the year for gifting cotton, so her husband contacted me for my "expert" opinion on where he could purchase a cotton lap blanket that could be personalized. Maybe he genuinely wanted a recommendation, maybe he was fishing, but it didn't matter because I was delighted to offer to make them one. Time was of the essence, so I opted for a whole cloth quilt, ie., no patchwork, just two pieces of fabric quilted together. It's the first time I have ever made a whole cloth quilt, so it was a little risky, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I don't know why I didn't try it sooner, especially since I always seem to prefer simplistic design.

Next step was fabric selection. Conveniently, my parents were coming by for lunch that day, so I dragged them to Needlework with me to help choose, sent two options to my cousin and settled on this luxurious floral Liberty print for the top and a solid grey for the back (purple and silver were their wedding colours). I've never used Liberty fabric before and I've got to say, it was a treat. It's beautiful in every way. It was perfect for this project too because I don't think I could bear to cut into it! The binding is a dark grey chambray that Mike actually pulled from my stash. It was a team effort. 

Once I laid out the fabric, I realized the print was slightly off-kilter along one axis, so I opted for quilting simple stripes rather than squares or anything else fancy. Then I just kept adding lines until I was satisfied with the look. It was pretty therapeutic. Two inches apart, then one inch, and finally a half-inch. The more stripes I added, the puffier and "quiltier" it got. Is quiltier a word? It should be.

I also embroidered their wedding date on the back. Happy Anniversary, Megan and Jeff!

I was left wishing I had bought enough fabric for two. It was pretty quick to create too, in comparison to a pieced quilt at least, so I'm kind of itching to make more now and have found myself mentally noting which fabrics I have that would work best. It has the potential to even become a product for sale. Would that make you happy?