The Guest Book

It's time to finish off the wedding guest book, otherwise known as the wedding quilt. All the squares have now been received (some of them making a journey to Australia and back) so it's time to sew them all together.

I prepared all the squares before they were signed; sewing the design together, trimming and putting tape over the seam allowance. This was to save me time when assembling the quilt.

Firstly, I took off the tape and laid out all the squares until I was happy with the design:

Each square was sewn together in a row (right sides together):

Before the rows were sewn together:

All of the seams were pressed. This was done row by row and then the bigger block.

Next step is purchasing some wadding and backing fabric before basting all the layers together. 

A cross stitch progression

What do you do when you've been crafting for almost a year for the wedding and it's now all over? You start an epic cross stitch pattern. Admittedly I didn't realise it was quite so large or complicated as it turned out to be (I thought it was all black!).

10th of May:

15th of May:

28th of May:

13th of June:

7th of August:

This was a surprise birthday present for a friend and (thankfully) she loved it. It measures 40 x 40cm so it's quite a large one and it's been framed in a cream frame.

Next project? A kitchen wall mosaic.

A few photos

Professional photos are yet to come from the lovely Elly Mac Photos but here are a few to whet your appetite...

The bride and groom (3 piece suit from ebay and dress from charity shop):

The shoes:

The reception venue after 3 hours of decorating (all handmade decorations):

Part of the cake table (all cakes and cookies made by friends and family):

Thank you to everyone who made our day so perfect.

Sweet trees

The second generation (started by friends, completed by family):

More crafting help

A hen weekend is never complete without some serious crafting:

The veil

I had tried for weeks (with much procrastination) to construct a birdcage veil. I had experimented on a good few metres of veiling, following a number of different tutorials but nothing felt right.

I was resigned to the fact it was never going to work and the morning of my hair trial, in desperation, I turned towards a visor veil. Winner.

I took the basic steps from this tutorial and here is the detail of the comb end:

The countdown begins

Less than two weeks to the wedding now and our house is overflowing with wedding bits and pieces.

Stacks of pieces for the Order of Service, ready to be delegated as a 'wedding chore':

Completed table numbers:

Quilt blocks, backed with freezer paper and with the seam allowance taped off: