Wedding Dress Made into Two Quilts for Bridget's Daughters

First quilts of 2020!  Bridget wanted her wedding dress made into two identical quilts for her daughters. Her dress had a very full skirt and a train, so there was plenty of fabric. 

Bridget 1

The outer border was quilted in a feather design. The lace that went around the bottom of her skirt was put into the inner border with a spiral quilting design in the open areas. 

Bridget 2

The center was a diamond feather design, with a free form feather wreath in the center.

Bridget Center

Lisa's Wedding Dress Quilt

Lisa sent me her dress, and her mother's.  She asked for a quilt that combined both dresses.  Her dress had beautiful beading on the bodice, and lots of ruffles with lace motifs.  Her mother's dress had some beautiful lace edging around the bodice and skirt.

Lisa

The quilt top was made from the satin underskirt of her dress. In the center of the quilt, I put a heart made from the lace in Lisa's dress bodice, surrounded by lace from her mom's bodice.  Lisa's mom loved daisies, so I quilted a daisy design around the heart. Lace from mom's bodice went in the corners and around the border of the center panel.  Lace from mom's skirt went around the edge between inner and outer borders, and I put ruffles over the outer border.  Feather quilting went in the open areas.

Cassidy's Wedding Dress Quilt

Cassidy send me her beautiful wedding dress, along with the ties the men in her wedding wore, and some nazars which had special meaning to her.  She asked me to incorporate all of this into a quilt, and wanted some colored quilting also.  

Cassidy

The lace from her bodice was put into a circle in the center of the quilt. She loves daffodils, so a daffodil design was quilted in yellow and green thread in a diamond shape in the center panel, with a feather design in the corners. The outer border was quilted in a feather design in blue thread, and the nazars were placed in a design on the quilt.

Quilt and Two Pillows for Barrie

Barrie wanted a wedding dress quilt made from her wedding dress and a flowered bridesmaid dress, and wanted some colored thread in the quilting. 

Barrie

The wedding dress was used for the center and inner border, with lace from her bodice in part of the center, and lace from her skirt overlaid on the border.  The open areas of the center panel were quilted using a rose colored thread, and their names and the date were embroidered in the center.

The outer border was the bridesmaid dress, quilted around the flowers and leaves.  And the bow from the back of her dress was put on the bottom of the quilt.

Barrie pillow front

For the two pillows, I used the same design, with satin from the dress in the center, quilted in a feather design. Then bridesmaid dress borders and lace from her skirt on the outer part of the pillows.  Bows from her dress were placed in the center of each pillow front.

Barrie pillow back

Four Colored Wedding Dress Quilt for Rachel

Rachel didn't have a lot of usable fabric in her dress, but she was able to order more of the satin fabrics, and fabric used for her husband's tie from the seamstress who made her dress. We incorporated the navy tie fabric and the pink and grey wedding fabric into flanges and narrow borders, and the champagne dress satin was used for the rest of the quilt.  

She had a dogwood theme in her wedding. The lace from the bodice dress was used in the center of the quilt, and Incorporated a dogwood quilting design in the center, with a feather design in the corners.  

The narrow borders had a feather design, and the outer border of the quilt was another dogwood quilting design.

Wedding Dress Quilt and Pillow for Theresa

Haven't been blogging lately, been busy quilting!  

Theresa asked me to make a quilt and pillow from her wedding dress.   As you can see from the picture, it's a beautiful dress, but because it was short, I wasn't sure I could make both the quilt and pillow.  

She also sent me a picture of the historic building where they were married, and asked me to use it somehow. I drew out the picture, and machine embroidered it onto one side of the pillow, with circular lace and beading from the dress sleeves..  The other side of the pillow was covered with the beautiful lace and beading.

The quilt was 

The quilt was made with the satin from the dress, with portions covered in lace and individual embellishments, and a lace ruffle.  Then it was heavily machine quilted.  The finished quilt was 36" x 36".

Just enough left over to make a lace garter for her to pass down.

Mary

Modern Wedding Dress Quilt

Rachel wanted something different and modern for her wedding dress quilt.  Her dress was short, so fabric was limited, and she wanted to use her wedding colors in the quilt.  I used her colors for the top of the quilt, and satin from her dress for the "flower stems" and appliques for the "flowers".  It was machine quilted in an all-over feather design.

It's very interesting and different, but she really liked it, and it was a lot of fun to make!

Mary

Gloves & Garter Wedding Dress Quilt

Lena sent me a beautiful lace wedding dress, with fingerless net gloves and a garter, to incorporate into a quilt.  The design used the bodice from the dress, and the lace from the skirt was used for the border and ruffle.  The satin in the dress worked beautifully for the background in the center, and under the lace border.

Her wedding photo was incorporated into the label on the back of the quilt.

Spiral machine quilting for the bodice an d border, and feathers for the center.

Mary

Purple and White Wedding Dress Quilt

This wedding dress was a beautiful white satin dress, with a purple border around the bodice and down the train.  It was perfect for a wedding dress quilt!   The center design was from the bottom of the front of the dress, with appliques in the top corners.

Feather quilting was perfect for the quilt, the designs on the dress made perfect "stems" for the feathers.

Hope the bride enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Mary

Multi Generation Wedding Dress Quilt

This unique wedding dress quilt represented 4 generations of brides, and was a gift to the mew baby!

Great-great grandmother's embroidered flowers were hand appliqued in the center of each outer border.  Two of great-grandmother's crocheted doilies were appliqued on top of each other in the center of the quilt.

Grandmother's satin wedding dress was used for the white areas of the quilt, and the wedding dress lace was used in the triangular areas.  The mother of the bride's dress was a beautiful floral silk, and was used for two borders.

The mother-to-be's wedding veil was gathered and sewn onto each heart in the outer border corners.

The quilt was heavily machine quilted, and a custom label was put on the back, with a frame of silk, and listed the names of the "contributors" to the quilt.

The end result was a wonderful heirloom that they were thrilled with and said they will treasure for many years to come.

Mary

Completed Quilts -- Catching up

This double wedding ring quilt was commissioned as a wedding present.  The bride's colors were white, blue and black and I used solid fabrics in those colors.   It is a bed runner, approximately 110" long, and is placed across the foot of the bed.

I quilted a motif in the center of each "ring" and put feathers in the other white areas. The blue and black areas were also quilted using matching thread.

Mary

Custom White Rose Quilt for Jeanette

Finished this quilt for my client Jeanette, we're both really happy with the way it turned out. She asked for a white quilt, with their names and a saying in the center, machine quilted and some colored thread "background" and roses.  The quilt is queen sized, with a center panel and two borders, made in a white high thread count fabric.

Here is a closeup of the corner of the quilt. I quilted with  colored thread in dusty pink and sage green to tie the center in with the rest of the quilt.

And another picture showing more detail of the thread painted roses pattern, and the feather quilting. I blurred out the writing in the photos, it's very clear on the quilt :).

Mary

Biggest Wedding Dress Quilt Yet!

I promised my client I wouldn't show off her Wedding Dress Quilt until after she gave it to her daughter, who is getting married.  The quilt was given to her at her shower yesterday, so I can to show it off!

Karen sent me her wedding dress, and the dress she wore at her reception.  The wedding dress had a full skirt and long train, so there was a lot of material, and some beautiful lace trim.  The reception dress was satin,  and was a yellowish color.  I used the reception dress for two borders and the center motif.

She asked that I make the quilt as big as possible, and I was able to make it about 75" square, which fits on a queen size bed.  This is the largest wedding dress quilt I've made!  Another request was for sunflowers in the center of the quilt, her daughter loves sunflowers.

I'm really happy with the way the quilt turned out, and glad I can share it with everyone!

 Here are closer shots of the corners of the quilt, showing the feather quilting designs.  And below is another picture of the center of the quilt.

Wedding dress quilts are custom designed, no two quilts are alike, and usually the tops are made from the dress(es) with no material added.  

You can see more of my Wedding Dress Quilts on my web site MaryMansonQuilts or my blog

Mary

Sneak Peak -Wedding Dress Quilt

I can't show off this quilt until after my client gives it to her daughter, but I couldn't resist showing a sneak peak!

I'll post more at the end of March!

Mary

Wedding Dress Quilt Finished!

The Donna Miller Wedding Dress Quilt is finished. It was such fun to make, and I love the way it turned out.

After de-constructing the dress and designing the quilt, I drew out the quilting pattern for the large center panel, using the mirror technique I blogged about here.

Then I sewed the top without the outer ruffle, and loaded it on my frame.  I machine quilted the pattern in white, off-white, tan/gold, light pink, and dusty pink threads.  Lots of "scribbling" made the feathers really stand out.  After quilting, I attached the ruffle and binding (on the back).

These quilts are never the same, it's so interesting to see the dresses, and make this special quilt for the bride! These next pictures show more of the detail and quilting

Working on a Wedding Dress Quilt

I love making wedding dress quilts!  They aren't the easiest quilts I've ever made, but the end result is SO pretty.

Here's just a sneak peak of the latest wedding dress quilt I've been working on for Donna.  She didn't want just a white quilt, and requested dusty pink on it also.  It was a beautiful ruffled dress, so I had lots of lace ruffles to work with!

When I finish it, I'll post pictures of the entire quilt.  Stay tuned!

To see more of my Wedding Dress and Special Occasion Quilts, click on the tab at the top of the page, or click here

And again, I couldn't have done it without this Craftsy class - Thanks Cindy!

Mary

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I just realized I never finished my blog posts about the double wedding ring bed runner I was making.  I did finish it, and think that the machine quilted feathers really set off the design well.

The original posts were New Way to Paper Piece and Update on Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Even with paper piecing, this was not an easy quilt to make, but I enjoyed making it, and the finished quilt was worth all the effort.

This bed runner was a hostess gift for my aunt and uncle, I hope they enjoy it.  And I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Mary

White Wholecloth Quilt Finished! Help from The Quilt Show and Craftsy

Ever done a whole cloth quilt?  I thought this would be great fun, and a good sample of the work I can do on the wedding dress quilts that I make.   And I finished it!  

Before I show more pictures,  let me describe the process for making the quilt.

Several months ago, The Quilt Show had a series of videos by Sharon Schamber. After watching them, I went to work and designed the pattern for this quilt.  It's a fun creative process, you draw out 1/8 of the design, then copy to make 1/4 of the design (so everything is consistent).  Then enlarge, and mark on each section of the quilt.

But the actual quilting was just not working .. not enough contrast.  I just wasn't happy with it.  so I stopped quilting it.  

 

Then I took the Craftsy class Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques with Cindy Needham.  This was a really good class, the first few lessons covered the basics, a good review for me, and I got a few new tips.  Then the designing started!  After this class, I was able to finish the quilt, and look how it turned out!

Wedding Quilt Designed from Wedding Invitation

A lovely lady in Canada, Megan Seiler,  asked me to make a wedding quilt for her friends, using their wedding invitation design in the quilt.  This was a great design opportunity, and was a lot of fun!

Using the EQ5 software, I designed the quilt, then printed it out and got out the pencil!!  Lots of hearts and feathers, and the bride and groom's names and the wedding date.

After customer approval, I got started.  The central panel was painted with acrylic paints mixed with textile medium.  Then I thread painted over those areas.

The rest of the top was sewn together, loaded onto my frame, and I started quilting!  I used coordinating thread for each section.

Most of the quilting was some form of hearts and feathers, but the grey borders were done in a spiral fill, with some pebbles in the outer border.  I felt this changed up the design from just feathers, and made it a little more contemporary/modern..

Top 2/3 of quilt

The blue borders were a design similar to the motif in the center panel, and in the outer blue border, I painted and thread painted again.  

Bottom 2/3 of quilt

Did you notice that there are more borders than there were in my original design?  I realized as I started making the quilt that the center panel was too big, and I made it smaller and added a couple of borders.  I like it much better now, it seems more in proportion.  The finished quilt is 83 x 93 - queen sized. Because it was a large quilt, it was hard to get a good picture of the entire quilt hanging straight!  Here's one that was only cropped a little :)

Feel free to take a look at the wedding gift quilts and wedding dress quilts in the Custom/Wedding page of my web site  MaryMansonQuilts.com (if you need further information, there is a contact page on my web site, or leave a comment here).

Mary