A guestbook you can cuddle with: How to make a wedding quilt guestbook #DIY#guestbook#quilt#tutorial Updated Oct 12 2015 (Posted Jan 5 2012) Guest post by Millennyum I wanted something different for a guestbook. As I sew clothes and costumes, I came up with the idea to have our guests sign and decorate pieces of fabric and sew them together into a wedding quilt afterwards. It was a lot of work, but definitely a success. Our guests very much enjoyed adorning the pieces (some people were working on it for an hour, and two of my aunts took theirs home to make it really pretty) and the quilt turned out to be lovely! It was the very first quilt I ever made so I probably didn't do everything by the book, but I still want to share with you how it was done. What you will need: Fabric — It can be a challenge to find suitable fabric. Try to find fabric of the same material, as it will be easier to sew into even pieces. Light, monochrome and patternless fabrics will be best, as it will provide the best basis for readable messages. Different pieces of thread, in several colors Different beads and sequins, in several colors (hint: make sure you can get a needle through the holes! I ended up with several bags of unusable beads.) Textile markers in several colors (indispensable for the less-creative guests — they can just write their names on the squares) Scraps of left-over fabric from which you have cut the squares Textile glue Textile paint Iron Tailors' chalk Cardboard Little clothespins, so people could hang up their decorations after they were done Step 1: Shop! This is fun: go to the shop and/or look in your closets to find stuff with which your guests can decorate their squares. But mind your wallet: all these things can get expensive without you noticing it! Step 2: Wash and iron the fabrics Depending on the type of decorations you provide, you can choose to make it a usable blanket, or to hang the quilt on the wall. My decorations were quite impractical for a blanket, so I choose to make a wall hanging. Then it is not really necessary to make it washable and you don't need to pre-shrink the fabric by washing it in advance. But it won't hurt to do it anyway. Do iron the fabric: it will be more work once you have cut it into pieces, and after your guests are done decorating them, you won't be able to iron them anymore. Related Post How I made my Rockabilly scrapbook our guest book alternative I didn't want a guestbook where guests just signed their names — I knew we'd just look at it once and then shove it in... Read more Step 3: Draw the squares Now this is a delicate process — make sure all pieces are exactly the same size, or you'll get in trouble when trying to evenly sew them together. I made them 17×17 centimeters, including 0.5 cm seam allowance on each side. I made a model out of cardboard, which I used to trace the squares with tailors' chalk. In the corners there are holes to draw dots, which served as markers: I instructed our guests to stay between these dots, so room would remain for the seams. Also, when sewing the pieces together, they will help you determine how to put them straight on top of each other. However, several of our guests either did not notice the dots or misunderstood the instructions, for many wrote up to the sides of the fabric. So if you are making a quilt yourself, you'd better draw a complete frame. Step 4: Cut out the squares It is hard to predict how many you will need. Not all people will RSVP, but also some couples use one square for the both of them, while others will use one square each. That's also the reason why I did not sew them into a patchwork blanket in advance: the risk of being left with a way too big quilt, with many empty patches, was too big. And I was glad I didn't, because indeed fewer pieces were used than I anticipated. The downside of providing individual pieces of fabric, however, is that people will choose themselves which color they want for their creation. So there is a risk that you'll end up with a lot of pieces in one particular color, and hardly any in one other. I stacked them alternately, hoping that this would give a clue to our guests. We still ended up with more pieces of one color than the other, but luckily not so bad that I couldn't turn them into a pattern anymore. Step 5: Provide the stuff and more on your wedding day Put all of the fun stuff you bought to decorate, plus the instructions, needles, scissors, paintbrushes, a saucer for the paint, a bowl with water for cleaning the paintbrushes, etc. on a table where your guests will find it. Hint: make sure you don't put it on the most precious tablecloth of your venue… at the end of the night, the table will be a mess! Step 6: Step aside and let your guests have their way with it! Step 7: Finish off the squares of fabric Boo, the wedding day is over. But, yay, you've got lots of lovely, fun, and surprising creations to go through! Before you can turn those creations into a quilt, you should make sure they won't fall apart. Your guest are not all experienced seamstresses, so you'll probably have to re-attach several things or sew them on more firmly. As my guests tended to ignore the seam allowance, I had to take off some decorations to slightly move them out of the way. On some pieces I was able to cut out the text and fixate it more to the center of another blank square. There were even people who had cut the square into a cat-shape! Very original, but I did have to sew it onto another square to be able to process it. Ah, you'll just have to be creative here yourself, and accept that some parts of the texts unfortunately will disappear under the seam. Step 8: Construct your pattern Scatter out all pieces on the floor, and see if you can arrange them into a pattern. I deliberately did not make the centerpiece until now, as I wanted to first assemble the pattern and then determine how much space I had and what color would be best for it. Step 9: Make the centerpiece This can be whatever you like, or you can leave it out all together if you want. I put our names and wedding date on it. If I had to do it again, I would make it smaller by adding a border around it. Because you are not going to sew through this piece, the larger it is, the higher the risk that it is going to hang once you put the quilt up on the wall. Step 10: Sew the squares together This is a very precise task: pin and sew the pieces together. Work row-by-row, or you'll forget the order of the pieces! Use a sewing machine foot with a guider, so you'll be sure that all seams are an equal distance from the sides. If you've neatly sewn everything together, all seams will match and your patchwork will look like this: Step 11: Add borders and loops Borders make a quilt even prettier. Cut four strips of fabric, as wide as you like them to be, and sew them along the sides of your patchwork. If you want to hang the quilt on the wall, also add loops. Just sew two pieces of fabric together (I used a lighter shade for the inside), turn them inside out, double it over and pin it upside down to the front. Step 12: Iron the seams Yes, ironing your needleworks is a boring task, but you will thank yourself for it in the end. It will make sure your quilt top stays nice and flat instead of wrinkle. The easiest thing to do is to iron it step by step: iron every vertical seam after you have finished the rows of squares. Only then sew the rows together into a big square. Then, iron the new horizontal seams. Don't iron the seams open: there is a risk that the padding will come through. Rather iron them to the side of the darkest fabric, to minimize the chance of it shining through. Iron the seams of the borders towards the border fabric. (And of course, do not iron over any decorations, and don't even come near anything that won't stand heat!) Step 13: Cut the back, padding, and make the sandwich Cut a big piece of fabric for the back of the quilt, and also a big piece of padding. Once you sew everything together, it will wrinkle a bit, so they must be somewhat larger than your patchwork front (it doesn't matter if you make them too big, you can cut it off later). Put down the back with the right side towards the floor. Lay the padding onto the back fabric. Then lay the patchwork top onto it, with the right side up. Smooth everything out as much as you can. Pin everything together. Start in the middle and work towards the edges, as this will help you prevent wrinkles. Do check the back once you're finished, to make sure everything is still smooth. Step 14: Stitch everything together Sew over all seams, stitching the back, padding and front together. You'll really want to have a sewing machine with Integrated Dual Transportation for this: it makes sure the upper layers and lower layers are distributed equally fast through the machine. Sewing machines without it may cause the fabrics to shift, even though you have pinned everything down. Also, there probably will be a very handy quilting foot available for your machine to precisely follow the seams. But I don't have one, so I just had to mind where I was sewing. Hint: you'll have to stuff a lot of fabric into the arm of your sewing machine. Easiest to do is to roll up both sides of the quilt like a parchment, and only unroll the part you need to sew. If you did everything properly, the back side will end up looking like this: Step 15: Finish the sides Now the proper way to do this is apparently to sew on some piping. I messed up here, because I found out too late that the back and padding had to be bigger than the front, so contrary to the instructions I provided you all with, I had cut them all the same size and ended up with a front panel that was bigger than the rest. In stead of substantially trimming the front borders to match the back, I decided to sew another strip of fabric on the borders, iron the seams flat, turn a centimeter or so from the edge inwards, and pin the strip to the back, just covering the seams from the borders. Then I sewed over those seams again, fastening the strip of fabric. Step 16: Put it up and admire it! There, you are all done! Find a nice place in your home to hang it. Guest post written by Millennyum I'm a 31-year old woman from the Netherlands. I love playing the bagpipes and violin, and to maintain my Alice in Wonderland website. Another hobby of mine is LARP (Live Action RolePlaying), for which I sew my own costumes. I am learning how to sew my own clothes as well. http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net PREVIOUS Why rehearsal shoots are worth it NEXT Formal faux hawks, undercuts, and other lady-mohawk awesomeness Show/Hide comments [ 19 ] We had a friend make us a t-shirt quilt for our guestbook, and folks loved it! The t shirts (which we no longer wore) had references to people and places and music and events our guests loved; it was a great way to refashion old memories and display our history with our community of friends at our wedding. Reply My mom is making us a quilt guestbook too! She's a super sewer-quilter, so she made a tree (kind of like the downloadable fingerprint tree a few posts ago) and all of our guests signed their love to us on hearts and leaves that will fill in the tree. Love this! Reply That sounds great! We're also doing a quilt guestbook and I had never thought of the tree idea! Any chance you can send a picture of what you anticipate it to look like? Reply I am nowhere near ready to be getting married, but I've been decided for a few good years now that my guestbook will be a quilt! I love the idea so much, be able to cuddle up in all the well-wishes. Reply I was so excited to post about my quilt after we complete it (wedding in July), but someone beat me to it! Love it! But I will not be hanging ours, we plan to use it on our bed 🙂 Reply What are you having your guests sign with? Sharpie fades with washing. I had a pillowcase signed by all my friends from camp and actually used it for years before I realized that I could now barely read what was written. Reply As it says in the instructions, I used textile markers. I'm not sure how many years they'll stand washing, but those are made to last on fabric. Reply If you iron the back of the material that sharpie is written on, immediately after signing or before the first washing, it will last much, much longer. Reply Thats such a cute idea!! Reply what a lovely idea and something very original. every stitch comes with added love Reply My daughter is getting married and I would love to see the Tshirt quilt and the tree one. Please share thanks Kim Reply we did this for our wedding!! Reply I love this! I had never heard of it before. Such a cute idea. I think I may use it!! Reply I would totally do this, except I'm pretty sure I'd end up with a lot of penis drawings. Reply Amazing Idea! Love it Reply We did a quilt guest book, too. There was actually a whole quilt theme, a little by accident, just because my mom and I are quilters and had a lot to work with. The guest quilt is a signature quilt with 30s style reproduction fabrics and modern fabrics we used for other things in the wedding (bunting, napkins). It took me about two years to finally finish it, but it's done and I love it! It is such a special and cozy souvenir of the day. Reply Thanks pertaining to offering like amazing content material.} Reply What a great idea! I used this post as a jumping-off point for a guest quilt and I've got a few more tips. https://craftycrusader.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/5217/ Reply ????????2008????????????1???????????????????30?????????????????????????0 . 04???????????????????????????????2???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? http://www.brandiwc.com/brand-8-copy-0.html Reply Join the conversation Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. Make sure you're familiar with our no-drama comment policy. Biz owners & wedding bloggers Please just use your real name in your comment, not your business name or blog title. 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We had a friend make us a t-shirt quilt for our guestbook, and folks loved it! The t shirts (which we no longer wore) had references to people and places and music and events our guests loved; it was a great way to refashion old memories and display our history with our community of friends at our wedding. Reply
My mom is making us a quilt guestbook too! She's a super sewer-quilter, so she made a tree (kind of like the downloadable fingerprint tree a few posts ago) and all of our guests signed their love to us on hearts and leaves that will fill in the tree. Love this! Reply
That sounds great! We're also doing a quilt guestbook and I had never thought of the tree idea! Any chance you can send a picture of what you anticipate it to look like? Reply
I am nowhere near ready to be getting married, but I've been decided for a few good years now that my guestbook will be a quilt! I love the idea so much, be able to cuddle up in all the well-wishes. Reply
I was so excited to post about my quilt after we complete it (wedding in July), but someone beat me to it! Love it! But I will not be hanging ours, we plan to use it on our bed 🙂 Reply
What are you having your guests sign with? Sharpie fades with washing. I had a pillowcase signed by all my friends from camp and actually used it for years before I realized that I could now barely read what was written. Reply
As it says in the instructions, I used textile markers. I'm not sure how many years they'll stand washing, but those are made to last on fabric. Reply
If you iron the back of the material that sharpie is written on, immediately after signing or before the first washing, it will last much, much longer. Reply
My daughter is getting married and I would love to see the Tshirt quilt and the tree one. Please share thanks Kim Reply
We did a quilt guest book, too. There was actually a whole quilt theme, a little by accident, just because my mom and I are quilters and had a lot to work with. The guest quilt is a signature quilt with 30s style reproduction fabrics and modern fabrics we used for other things in the wedding (bunting, napkins). It took me about two years to finally finish it, but it's done and I love it! It is such a special and cozy souvenir of the day. Reply
What a great idea! I used this post as a jumping-off point for a guest quilt and I've got a few more tips. https://craftycrusader.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/5217/ Reply
????????2008????????????1???????????????????30?????????????????????????0 . 04???????????????????????????????2???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? http://www.brandiwc.com/brand-8-copy-0.html Reply