Jamie Elaine Quilt...wedding quilt...

Jamie Blackstone has a great website,  Jamie Elaine Quilts' goal is to create one-of-a-kind quilts that will be passed down from generation to generation. She feature both original and traditional patchwork quilts in pieced and applique designs. All quilts are handmade, handcut, machine pieced or appliqued and then machine quilted. Bindings are all sewn by hand, adding another touch of love to your quilt.  Go check our her website if you are interested in her services. This is one she made for her own wedding earlier this  year...           

As soon as I got engaged I knew I wanted to do something special for my fiance, Matt. Something that would express what he meant to me and what our wedding meant for me. We had experienced so much together before the wedding and I wanted to bring that all with us on our wedding day.  I decided to make a quilted wedding canopy, or Chuppah, which hangs over your heads when you marry and represents your first home together.  I sketched and sketched away, trying to combine the hundreds of ideas I had into one quilt.

After a LOT of eliminating and swapping at the fabric store, I decided on about 20 fabrics and had no plan as to which parts of the quilt the fabrics would be used.  I also picked a few specialty fabrics that I felt represented different parts of our lives (monkeys: the town we visited in Thailand; sombreros: the summer we spent in Mexico; the alphabet: we are both teachers & my husband is an author; Manhattan subway map: the city where we fell in love).  I also used fabric from the shirts we wore on our first date and the peach Fabric is the shirt I was wearing when he proposed.  I spent the next 8 months working on this quilt.  I rearranged the quilt top’s layout just about everyday.  There were so many parts that it was like fitting together a giant puzzle.

 I knew that I wanted to incorporate the traditional wedding ring pattern into an otherwise very crazy quilt.  I was able border the quilt top with it, and also use a few squares on the back of the quilt.  My mini NYC apartment forced my to do all my sewing at the kitchen table.  Everything needed to be cleaned up after each sewing session.  The hardest part was keeping the quilt a secret from Matt, as he lived a few blocks away and would stop by unexpectedly.  All evidence had to be hidden away everyday.  

About a month before our wedding, I brought Matt to the spot where he proposed, had him sit on a bench with his eyes closed, and I spread the quilt out in front of him.  Having the quilt hanging over us at our wedding meant the world to me.  It really personalized those amazingly important moments for us.  It is so special to know we had the people we love standing below the quilt with us  The quilt will always serve as a reminder for me: the love that I felt for Matt as I labored for hours over my sewing machine; the surreal moments of our ceremony; the idea that wherever life takes us, we will always have our “first home” with us.
 

Thanks Jamie for sharing your special quilt with us!

Also for those of you that commented on Sara's Polka Dot Quilt she announced a winner on SewSara today.  You better go see if it's you if you want some cute fabric in the mail!!