With Love and Best Wishes

At long last I can share what I've been keeping under wraps for months! Our Pastor and his fiancée were married on Saturday, it was a glorious day filled to overflowing with love and happiness. Earlier in the year I thought it might be a great gift from the congregation to present them with a quilt full of best wishes on their wedding day. Every part of this project was top secret! The bride had shared with me her favorite colors; we were off and running. I took two friends with me to shop for fabric and using this pattern from Lella Boutique,  set to work. It took me a few weeks to get all of the blocks ready and stabilized with freezer paper, but by April they were good to go!

I made 35 blocks, (an extra row) instead of the 30 called for, as our Pastor is 6'8"! Armed with Pigma pens, I invited the congregation to come and sign a block, at their convenience, on three consecutive Saturday afternoons. We also took blocks to the shut-ins so that they could participate as well! Everyone was so excited about the idea, the insides of the hearts were filled with loving well-wishes, scripture verses, advice and signatures. 

There ended up being a few blank hearts that I filled with some personalized embroidery to commemorate their big day!

Ready for loading onto the long arm.

It was quilted with a modified Clamshell which covered nicely, mimicked the curve of a heart and didn't obscure the signatures at all. 

Before we knew it the big day had arrived! Their quilt of love and best wishes was secretly placed in the bride's dressing room last Friday afternoon. I believe they were pleased with the gift. Someone involved in the wedding moved it to the Fellowship Hall before the ceremony began, it was a great conversation piece as I noticed people huddling around the quilt display looking for their names and reading what everyone else had written. This is truly a gift from many hearts; one quilt that bears the love and best wishes of a grateful congregation, that's a LOT for a quilt to do but it does its job beautifully! As for our little church, we couldn't be happier and, along with this quilt, wish the happy couple a lifetime of love and God's blessings!

💗

"With Love and Best Wishes" ~ 68" X 92"

Life is Good!