Ruby Wedding Quilt

The Ruby Wedding Quilt
The Ruby Wedding Quilt

This quilt was made for my parents-in-law who celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary in August 2001.  40 years of marriage was worth a special effort although it had to be relatively simple to fit in with the demands of three children, a husband and a QI.

The design is "Evening Stars" by Pauline Adams as published in Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend (ISBNXXXXXX), although I have changed the fabrics to suit the occasion, machine quilted in the ditch and bound the edges rather than "bagging out" (birthing) and then tying it as suggested in the book.  It also took me rather longer than  a weekend to finish it.  I never seem to have a weekend that consists of two free days to devote to quilting.

Centre Panel
The centre panel,
unfortunately due to my choice of colours the star has ended up looking more like a cross.

The cloud fabric was part of the Forces of Nature range by Rose and Hubble.  In a moment of madness I decided to back the quilt with polar fleece, I have since discovered that when you lay fleece flat on a carpet and smooth out the folds it ends up very slighly stretched.  This has led to the quilt top not being quite as smooth as desired.  I also ended up with a few puckers on the back as I quilted, probably fom a combination of sewing too fast with the walking foot and not having basted adequately.  However despite the imperfections I am happy enough with this quilt especially as it was my excuse to go out and buy a walking foot for my sewing machine.  The final dimensions were 56"x56", so a single piece of 60" polar fleece was wide enough for the back.

Back view
The back of the quilt
which shows the star pattern much better!

I also made a couple of cushions to match.  This picture shows one finished and the other "quilt top" pieced, but not yet layered etc.. It was however completed in time for August 19th!

With the cushions


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© Elizabeth Taylor 2001
Background image by kind permission of Sharon Curtis