All Tied Up

There's so much to say about this quilt but first a little background.  This quilt was for my cousin and his wife for their wedding present.  I knew that his then soon-to-be wife loves bows, and that the main flower at their wedding was going to be sunflowers.  For me when I make a quilt for someone's wedding I really try to make the quilt about the couple and their wedding day.  That way when they see the quilt in years to come it is never about how its not their style or doesn't match their living room, but rather it hopefully will conjure up memories of the day they started their lives together as a team.

So with those two components in mind (bows and sunflowers!) I scoured around for sunflower fabric (very hard to find at the beginning of summer! All shops kept telling me they wouldn't get anything in until autumn).  I also recalled seeing in the book "The It's Okay If You Sit On my Quilt Book" by Mary Ellen Hopkins a block for a bow (non-affiliated link, I just love the book and highly recommend it especially if you're into designing your own quilts).  Instead of a bunch of bow blocks all sashed together though, I decided to just make a quilt out of a single block blown up!  I've wanted to try a "one block quilt" for awhile so it was a perfect opportunity. Plus it made the process much quicker.

Did you see how many fabrics are on the front?! Three! THREE!!!  I have never in my life made a quilt with only three fabrics (heck I even repeated the sunflowers for the binding!).   In order to see the ribboning bow you need to make sure your front and back bow fabrics contrast well and that the back reads as darker than the front.  I was happily surprised looking through my stash that the Botanics mustard and gold metallic fabric went well with my sunflower print.  The glittery gold gave this quilt just that extra little something it needed in that sea of white.  

This is also my first quilt with so much negative/empty space.  I was nervous at first that the quilt would appear 'flat' but the vertical line quilting gave it enough dimension and a cozy texture which I really like.  The backing is fabric number four, a light yellow crosshatch from Carolyn Friedlanders Architextures  line.  I had originally bought it for a different quilt's backing but it was on hand and just too perfect not to use on this quilt.

Want to make your own?  See the book for the block, and my plain squares I cut at 8.5", my squares to make HSTs using this method I cut at 9.5" and trimmed down later to 8.5", then I added 8.5" borders in the background fabric all the way around.  The quilt will finish at 72" square, perfect lap size quilt for two!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!

Special thanks to my husband/quilt holder/child-carrier-and-wrangler 

during our hike turned photo shoot :)