Wedding Guest Quilt
 

My Maid-of-Honor pinned an idea on my secret wedding board that I LOVED, instead of a guestbook, a guest quilt! Yes, I want have my guests sign a quilt.

So, my wedding is in July, and I don't have the time to really plan anything too crazy but I want it to look nice and be able to knock out the top of the quilt in a couple of sittings, have the guest sign on that and save the finishing (batting/backing/quilting/binding) for after the wedding so I can finish at my leisure and not have the fabric markers bleed through the quilt. I have experience quilting, so I know what I'm getting myself into.

I want to use 3 fabrics with the wedding colors Royal Blue and Sunflower Yellow with Ivory as a filler. I want it to be a queen sized. I was thinking of either doing a rail fence or a tube quilt as these patterns seem pretty easy to cut a bunch of squares at once. Are there any other patterns that are easy sew and cut many squares in one go?

Your colors sound lovely! The rail fence sounds quick and easy and beautiful.

Yellow Brick Road and Turning Twenty (there are at least 3 books of Turning Twenty) are both easy and quick patterns.

Have you considered just setting out cut blocks ironed onto freezer paper for the guests to sign? Cut the blocks the size you'd need for a rail fence, marking it so people don't write into the seam allowance. This is what my daughter made for my 70th birthday.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]407219[/ATTACH]The rails are 2.5" X 7.5" finished.

Consider having guest sign fabric for the back more space to write

Ironed to freezer paper?

Te freezer paper adds stability to the fabric so it doesn't stretch when signed.

What is freezer paper exactly?

Warm Wishes would be nice with a light color in the middle for signatures.

Oooo, I just had a really cool thought! My flowers are going to be a sunflowers. If I could find a sunflower pattern and do solids for the stripes (Royal Blue, Sunflower Yellow, Ivory) so people can sign on those, that would be really neat looking.

OR I could do the striped sections as blue/ivory/blue because the sunflower blocks would add enough yellow.

Whatever you have the guests sign you will need to be supervised by more than just one person.

Hints:
- Assign this task to people who have at least tried it and are aware of how to help others.
- Have lots of extra material because no matter how you explain it some folk mess up their signatures and will want a do-over.
- Have plenty of reverse templates and clipboards to hold the templates and material.
- Have several of whatever type pen you choose. many guest will actually try to use their own pens and that can cause a big schmear on your quilt top.
- Have a container for the unsigned material and another for the signed material.
- You might want someone to coordinate the guest list with the signatures obtained.
- If someone you love cannot attend you might want to mail them the needed items so you can have that signature ... ie: great grandma is still living but can't attend. Sorta of material skype but not really.

Reverse templates [my term] are something like file folders cut to size with a frame cut out so that the signature will be within the open area. If the reverse template file folders are the same size as the material there is no hassle centering the fabric correctly. Then the guests just have to sign in that open area.

Happy Day to you.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding how fantastic!!

A signature quilt will be a wonderful way for you to read what everyone thought. Your colors sound great and the ivory will work well for the actual blocks your friends sign.

Am I understanding that you want quilt made "before" wedding so friends can sign actual quilt? If that is case then I would suggest against that. Main reason why is people/person as AliKat pointed out will mess up what they want to say at least once and then you quilt will not be what you envision. Just picking out a patten and cutting which squares that will be the ivory for signing will take you some time. You don't want to put too much on your plate with when you are entering the 90 day count down zone. Also kids tend to run loose while people are findind their proper seats I have seen flowers get knocked down and ruined would hate to see your wedding quilt end up on floor.

AliKat has great suggestions for the signing station--I would use those as a guide. Do you have a wedding planner he/she might want to know of this plan as well. I love wedding and everything about them I can't wait to see your quilt--it really is a great memory maker. Enjoy your wedding planning :-)

I'm heading up wedding signature quilts this month!

Doing most of the things ALIKAT mentioned. Instruction board, more than I need over sized fabric squares on freezer paper, file folder frames, prepped sample fabric for them to practice on, and necessary boxes to place the squares in.

I will be making the blocks and quilts after the wedding.

I totally agree that you should enlist the help of other people to help with the process before and especially at the wedding. You're the bride! You'll have plenty to do and people to visit with instead of watching over the quilt signing.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who's made these quilts.

HOW DID YOU PREP THE FABRIC?
WHAT PENS DID YOU USE SUCCESSFULLY?
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE WITH THE FABRIC AFTER THE FABRIC WAS SIGNED?
HOW LONG DO THE SIGNATURES LAST?

Thanks - Nan - Indiana

All great questions! I want to know too!

Freezer paper can be bought at the grocery store. It's for wrapping food for freezer storage. You'd press the waxy side to the back of the fabric. It stabilizes the fabric to make it easier to write on. Use Micron pens. They're permanent and don't wash out. Press the blocks after they're signed. Signatures last a long time.

That's a really good idea. It also saves you the aggravation if someone decides to get "cute" and write something objectionable on your quilt. I know. I know. None of your wedding guest would do that but somehow it seems to happen sometime.

Really good point! I have some cousins (or even my brother) who would do stuff like that.

Sent private email but will ask here too

What size MICRON pens did you use?
05 which is .45mm
or
08 which is .50mm

Nan - IN

Just PMed you, Nan

I had a friend make 16 inch squares with a print on one side and a solid on the other, she then put in a piece of 15 inch batting and quilted them. She used them for place mats at the dinner and ask the guests to sign them on the solid side, with the supplied sharpie's. After the wedding she stitched them together like a ragg quilt, it is beautiful with wonderful memories. There was plenty of room to write and she had everything from just signatures, art work to nice poems. She used her daughter's wedding colors for this.

Here is a mock-up of what I am thinking of doing. It is a warm wishes pattern, on point. Think I'll have a cream or ivory for the "framed" blocks and a white for the unframed blocks. What do you guys think?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]407486[/ATTACH]
It will be roughly 105" x 121"

I made a picture quilt for my in-laws 60th wedding anniversary and took long strips of fabric ironed to freezer paper for the guests to sign and then sewed that strips to the back so they had a permanent reminder of their guests at the celebration. They are both gone now and I have the quilt and it's a wonderful reminder of a very special day!

CraftyRae, I like your patterns - and so many great ideas on how to get it accomplished!

I just finished a signature quilt from my daughter's wedding. I pieced the blocks from scraps of things I had made for her throughout her growing up years. We used muslin for the signing area. I prewashed it so it would take the ink well. We used micron pens with freezer paper ironed to the back of the muslin area. It worked great. We just scattered the pieced blocks over a table in the foyer of the reception area for guests to sign as they came to the reception. Since there were a variety of prints, the guests picked something they liked. I ironed all the signatures to set the ink. Later I pieced them into a quilt. Several things I would have done differently...1. I should have told my niece who was in charge of the table to have each person sign a block. (I think some husbands didn't want to sign, so the wife did theirs together.) Several had the whole family on one block. So I had lots of unsigned blocks that could have been signed if we would have pushed for one block per person. 2. I should have marked the signature area with a washout marker. There were a few signatures that got very close or into the seam area. Especially on one that wrote a sweet note to the bride and groom.

Here's a get well quilt I did for my brother-in-law in 2008. Same principle: sent muslin ironed to freezer paper and pre-cut into rectangles, with the corner seam allowance marked in pencil. I had them use supplied Pigma Micron 05 (archival ink) pens. Most of these were signed by sixth graders. The rectangles didn't fray because the freezer paper stabilizes the fabric, also making it easier to write on. If you just supply the pre-cut squares, you can take your time making the quilt when you don't have so many other things to do. If you don't get enough signatures, you can evenly disperse them throughout the quilt design. I ironed them to set the ink and they are permanent. Good luck with your endeavor. It will be a fantastic memento of your special day.[ATTACH=CONFIG]407531[/ATTACH]

What a great idea. Good luck with your project.

I like the pattern you've chosen. It will be very pretty.

HOW DID YOU PREP THE FABRIC?
WHAT PENS DID YOU USE SUCCESSFULLY?
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE WITH THE FABRIC AFTER THE FABRIC WAS SIGNED?
HOW LONG DO THE SIGNATURES LAST?

Wash and dry, but DO NOT STARCH when ironing.
Pigma Pens. DO NOT use ball point pens or gel pens. I have also used ultra fine point Sharpies, but if someone holds the point on the fabric, the ink will wick into the fabric and make a blob.
Press each block with a hot, dry iron. This will set the ink into the fibers.
I don't know.

I made a memory quilt for one of my husband's friends for her wedding. She wanted a wall hanging, so I decided on 36x36 with 6" finished blocks. I made and gave her 40 snowball blocks and two Pigma pens. She was thrilled that I would do something like that for her. But it's been 4 years since her wedding, and I still haven't gotten the blocks back. I reminded her 3 times in the first year, but after her first anniversary, I told my husband that I wasn't going to go looking for work. If she ever gives them back to me, I will finish it. If not, c'est la vie!

great idea... can't wait to see it

Another idea for the singing table. Have several file folders, the kind that you open, on the table. Something like hanging file folders.
*The folders are prepped with very fine sandpaper glued inside.
*A"window" just a little smaller than what will show in the quilt, is cut into the front flap of the folder. (An exacto knife works here.)
*The helper puts a piece of fabric (larger than needed; just a larger seam allowance) onto the sandpaper in a marked area; close the front of the folder and the area visible is the only place in which the guest can write.
Have fun making your quilt.

I have done this once last year. my picture is this one. and I am in the process of doing my second one right now for my second daughter getting married in a week. They work fabulously. Remember to get fabric pens for the guests to sign with.

Regarding suggestion 2, I would suggest placing directions around on how you would like people to sign the blocks - where and what (i.e. their greetings, wishes, etc. and their signatures). I just did blocks for my cousin's wedding and should have marked the signing area, because I also have some that are very close to the seam lines and I will have to change the quilt pattern I was going to use.

I did wash all the fabrics, but mainly because 3 of them are reds (which I washed with Retayne) and I was afraid of bleeding into the muslin. Also, even though I didn't mind combined signatures (for couples), I wish people had signed them, not just put their greetings on them. Some were very artistic.

I wish I had done this. So much less worry and stress and prep time. I am still trying to get mine complete. Maybe by the June anniversary date. :/

I really like the quilt Emiliasnana shows here. The way she done hers would look fantastice in your colors. You could put a sunflower in each block & ivory where her white is for your guests to sign. Congrats on your up coming wedding. If you done the blue & ivory as strip piecing & then cut the blocks, it would go together really fast.

All great ideas.

What about an ivory on piece heart in the center, next round out do yellow and sash in blue?

A snowball block is easy and you could make your corners in each color

I also did a quilted wall hanging for my daughter's wedding. It was a small wedding. She was going to carry Calla Lillies so I found a pattern with two of these flowers on it. I used that paper pieced pattern for the center then made blocks to go around it. I did piece it before the wedding and quilted it afterwards. Yes, we did have one person sign it upside down before her brother realized what was happening but she was not upset and actually found it very memorable. I think she loves that that happened now. He was a great uncle who was well into his 80's and was very fond of her.

Yes to putting freezer paper on the back to keep the fabric flat and to keep it from "slipping". And yes to marking somehow the area to be signed although I did not need to since my blocks were already in the quilt.

I would also definitely have a large scrap of the signage fabric (or two if there will be a lot of people signing) ironed onto freezer paper so people can try out the pens and get a feel for how they flow. That was a huge help for people who were a bit timid about doing the signing.

I quilted the borders with words appropriate to the newlyweds and they now have it hanging above their bed. It is a bit "wavy" but they don't seem to care. We love her and her husband for the great people they are.

Good luck with what you are doing. When you are done, you will treasure that quilt forever no matter who writes what and where it ends up on the block!!! lol

Great idea!