A gift for love

My very first patchwork quilt was a wedding gift for one of my best friends, and my freshman year roommate, Ashley. It may not have been the best idea to start my first quilt with the intentions of giving it away as such an important gift...but I guess ignorance is bliss. 

I scoured the internet and found this awesome tutorial from my favorite blogger Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. I knew that I wanted the color pallet to be orange, green, and brown. These colors are in their apartment and are also the colors of the wedding. I started with a set of fat quarters from Sandy Gervais' grande finale for Moda. I added in some other prints I found at Joann. Again, I purchased this fabric before I knew much about fabric and was oblivious to the difference between crummy fabric and quilting fabric. When I finally got around to quilting this I was appalled with the texture of some of these fabrics. You can be the judge (after checking out pictures below), but overall I am happy with the outcome of my first official quilt!!!

Here are all of the Topsy Turvy blocks laid out on the pool table...

Finished quilt top! I am so lucky that I always have people around the house to take pictures of me showing off my hard work.

I rented time on the longarm machine at a local quilt shop. This was the first time I have ever done free-motion quilting and I think it turned out pretty well! I did large stippling across the entire quilt....but I really wish I would have taken some close-up photos of the hearts that I quilted in a few places. :) I really like the pieced backing that I did. 

 

Here it is before I wrapped it...

I am so happy that the newlyweds hosted an after-party for their closest friends because I had the opportunity to watch them open their gift....they loved it!!!!

I have said this a million times over the past month....but CONGRATULATIONS Ashley and Will!!! These two are so in love and I know that they will have a wonderful marriage. So happy that I had the opportunity to be a part of their special day.