Wedding Whole Cloth

Happy Friday! And it's a happy one for me as the hubby had gone out of town for work and was involved in an accident. He didn't get hurt, praise God, but had to stay gone two extra nights. He came back early this morning, happy day!

After showing you the applique project I was working on earlier this week, I had to stop to get started on a wedding gift for a cousin of mine. I designed a whole cloth wall hanging the old fashioned way, by hand instead of on the computer like the applique design. So much erasing! Actually, I had thought of it being a quilted pillow, but after thinking about her cats' antics, I decided a wall piece would be safer.

original wholecloth design

Above, I have finished the design and have gone over the final lines with a Sharpie in preparation for making a mirror image tracing. You should have seen all the stray and discarded pencil lines there were before I started erasing them.


There's a full-width version, above, and now to transfer the design to the cotton sateen I will be using.

marking the whole cloth design

 Using a dark Sharpie on the pattern allowed me to see the lines very clearly even without using a light table. That funny rectangular shape will hold the date of the wedding. I had originally designed a traditional feathered wreath with the doves at the top, but I realized that the feathers and doves would blend together too well and wouldn't 'pop'.


I started some stitching and I can already see that the wool batting and the design are going to work well together to give this piece some nice textural interest.


I will be quilting very densely around the doves, ring, and scroll work. Then I will play with some fun fillers. Following all these marked lines is not my favorite quilting activity, but I wasn't about to free hand such a symmetrical design.


I do have to remind myself that it will look much better after the markings have been removed with a water bath. Above, I didn't stitch all the way between the first two petals of the flower, but decided it looked better stitched all the way down, so I will have to go back and stitch that line on the left.

free motion quilting faux trapunto

Just with some light echoing the flower is beginning to pop. I will be doing some ruler work on this piece just like the big boy (girl) long armers do. I really like using long arm rulers on my domestic sewing machine.

My hubby came home with a $5 flatbed scanner he picked up at Goodwill, so there's a chance I will make this into an actual pattern to share/sell.

I'm linking this post up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday and Leah Day's Free Motion Friday. Then it's time to get back to stitching, this time I've got a skirt to make for my favorite birthday girl! I'm not much of a garment sewer, but I am so glad I can make my sweet Boo a decent twirly skirt and an occasional dress. What clothing that is available for a size 7 girl these days is not pretty.

9 comments:

  1. Another amazing project! Girlfwend, you are like the energizer bunny! You just keep going and going and going.

    So glad hubby was not hurt!

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  2. It looks super! Great design. It will look amazing when done. What a nice gift.

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  3. That is really pretty - a very nice wedding gift!
    I'm curious to know what brand of marking pen you use. It looks like it makes a nice dark line.

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  4. Beautiful! Erasing is a beautiful thing by the by. :)

    Glad you husband is well.

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  5. this will be a wonderful wedding gift!

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  6. Is that a curvy ruler template? Way cool!

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    1. It’s part of a set of curved templates for drafting and drawing. Pretty handy!

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  7. A really, really nice and beautiful idea!

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