Finished Wedding Quilt

Just in time for "our first married" Christmas, I finished the guestbook quilt from our wedding.

I posted a few months ago about the first steps of creating this quilt.  Finishing it was the challenge - I was intimidated by the large size and the idea of maneuvering it around my sewing table and my small home machine.  The last few queen-sized quilts that I've made left me with sore arms and resolute that I would only make baby quilts from now on!

But I wasn't about to send this away to a long arm quilter - I had to finish it myself!  With patience, it came together just fine.  There were some sore arms, of course, but it was all worth it to spend so many hours lovingly stitching this together.  I think part of the difference was that I'm a more seasoned quilter now - I have a better grasp on how to approach a large project like this, and stronger free-motion quilting skills. Sometimes it's hard to notice this progress because it builds up incrementally with each project.  But then I pull off something like this and think, "wow, look what I can do!"

I even sewed the binding on by hand, which I wouldn't normally do on a quilt this large. But stitching the binding has long been my favorite part of the quilting process, and I wanted to take the time to do right by this quilt.

I love it.  It matches our bedroom perfectly, and is a wonderful reminder of the joy, coziness, and love that pervaded our wedding day.

Thanks to all of our friends and family who created squares to be a part of this quilt.  It is so special, and we'll treasure it forever.