Wedding quilt for N and A: Part II

I put N and A’s quilt together in my apartment, instead of at my parents’ house, but since the quilt is on the small side I managed alright.

I used a large purple print for the back:

The piecing for this quilt is relatively simple, so I decided to do some more involved quilting.  I did everything by hand.

I started by quilting N and A’s names in blue on the pink strip.  Here’s a sample of the script:

That was the easy part.  I did the rest of the quilting in Hebrew.  I don’t know Hebrew, so I had to get help.  N and A had put their Hebrew names on the wedding invitation and I confirmed with N’s father that I had the names correct before I started to quilt them.    I quilted their names in pink on the yellow row.

I wanted to add something nice, besides their names.  My friend A also speaks Hebrew and she told me that there’s a Hebrew phrase associated with weddings: Ani l’dodi v’dodi li.  It means “I am for my beloved and my beloved is mine.”  (The phrase highlights the similarities between Arabic and Hebrew, except the word dod doesn’t exist in Arabic.)  People get it engraved on wedding rings and the like.  I have coworkers who also speak Hebrew and one of them helped me make sure I had spelled everything correctly.  I quilted the Hebrew phrase on the blue row with yellow thread.

I made a mistake with my dels (in dodi) and quilted them like raas, a mistake my coworker caught in time for me to fix them.  (I don’t know the names of the Hebrew letters, so I use the Arabic names for the corresponding letters.  I’m sure they’re very similar.)

Here’s the completed quilt:

On the back I made a quilt tag with their names, the wedding date, and my name.

I gave them the quilt in the beginning of June.  As always, I think it’s beautiful, and they liked it, too.  (No one has ever looked at a present I made for them and not thanked me – who complains about a handmade present?)

My posts have been delayed in part because I moved in the interim, but I was pretty far ahead with posts from the last quilt, anyway.  I had planned to switch to a post every week instead of twice a month, but that may have to wait until the fall.  It’ll depend on how much time I have to quilt in August.

Wedding quilt for N and A – Part I

I mentioned, I believe, that I made three quilts this spring.  This is the third.  My friend N got married back in January, but it took me a while to finish the quilt.  Then, I didn’t see them for a couple of months, and I don’t like to post until I’ve given the recipients their presents.

N and I have known each other since the fourth grade.  I attended her bat mitzvah, during which she read from the story of Noah.  Her wedding invitations had a drawing of a sun rising (or setting) over green grass, and the rainbow shades reminded me of her bat mitzvah reading.  I decided to make a rainbow stripe quilt.

I cut six-inch long strips in rainbow shades: reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, light blues, dark blues, and purples.  The strips are of varying widths – I believe the narrowest are about 1.5″ wide and the widest are about 4″ wide.

Here are the strips all piled up:

Here is the row of light blue strips, all laid out:

I arranged them in whatever order I found most pleasant, and then sewed them into long rows.  I wanted the quilt to be approximately 40″ square.

Here are the completed strips:

I sewed all the strips into one big block.  The row of red across the top is a little hard to see in this picture; apologies for that.

I’m not sure of the exact measurements of the quilt.  Since I had eight 6″ rows, the quilt came out around 40″ long, and I think it’s slightly wider.  I wanted it a little larger, so I added a solid strip of sky blue as a border:

In my next post, I’ll cover the quilting.

Wedding quilt for P and J – Part III

Last but not least, the hand quilting:

I had two things I wanted to hand quilt.  First, their names, and second, a meaningful phrase.  (I had originally wanted to quilt their wedding date and two meaningful phrases, but I ended up limiting myself.  I had plenty to do already.)  I chose a variegated thread that’s in beautiful shades of teals – it matched the border fabric perfectly and because I did a whip stitch it was a thicker line and it didn’t blend in.

I quilted their names and then I quilted a Latin phrase, “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.”  It means “Where there’s charity and love, God is there.”  When P and I were in college, we used to sing a song with that phrase at mass.  It’s perfect for P and J, who are both very strong in their faith and who met doing service work.

Here’s the finished phrase:

I kind of used a bubble print.  I intended a fancier script but it didn’t quite happen.

I made a quilt tag on the back of the quilt with their names, the date they got married, and my name.   I mailed it to them, only three months after the wedding, and I am pleased to report that they loved it.  By choosing their favorite colors I managed to match their decor without even seeing it.  🙂