Do you remember Amber? She used to work here at Piece Fabric Co. and also is my niece, and she got married earlier this year! I had been wanting to make a Wedding Guest Book quilt for awhile and was so excited when she loved the idea.

There are so many ways to approach a wedding guest book quilt; perhaps the wedding colours are reflected in the fabrics chosen, maybe the pattern is chosen by the couple… all I knew was that I didn’t want to be solely responsible for choosing everything and risk Amber not loving the quilt. This was easily solved by a shared Pinterest board where she pinned a few quilts that she loved, and pointed out to me what the important parts of each were. 

Pinterest Inspiration

From there, I chose a layout and fabric, knowing that it was something Amber would love. The pattern was simple – a checkerboard layout of nine-patch blocks and solid colour squares. I used Essex Linen for the whole quilt top; creating a warm, handmade look.

Choosing the colours of Essex Linen

But! Before the quilt blocks could be pieced together, we had to get them all signed by guests at the wedding. After a bit of research, I learned that the difficult part of this is helping non-quilters understand that the perimeter of the block would need to be reserved for seam allowance. Many people spoke about how their guests wrote write to the edge of the fabric and then  part of their message was hidden when the quilt was sewn together.

I was determined to NOT have this happen, so created this template with instructions on not writing over the tape that would cover the edge of the block:

The template - click to download

Then taped the solid colour squares to each template. The tape nicely covered the seam allowance, so surely, with the instructions and the tape, the guests would realize that they had to keep their message off that edge. Right!?

We set up a table at the wedding right where a typical guest book might be – at the door leading into the reception. I decorated the table with quilts and fabric so that those who weren’t paying close attention might still catch on to the point of it all. I sat there until the start of the reception and tried to catch everyone coming in – handing them a template/block and a permanent fabric marker. Sometimes it was one block per family and sometimes one per person – we had lots of room to fill on the quilt. They took the blocks to their tables to fill out, signing on the spot with permanent marker on fabric felt like a big ask, so this gave them a way to come up with a message and be creative.

After the meal, I started walking around the tables to pick up the blocks that hadn’t been dropped back off at the table. Mostly, this was reminding people to hurry up and sign the blocks, and finally, after about the third lap around the reception hall, I started to give them a deadline, haha!

I was first alerted to a problem when one guest told me that the message kept “wiping off” the block. Ummm, what? The permanent fabric marker should not be wiping off the linen!

It wasn’t. Upon inspection, several people had signed right up to the edge of the block, over the tape. Of course, the marker didn’t adhere to the tape, so it wiped off! Ugh. Perhaps I gave the non-quilters too much credit. 

Instead of finding these guests and having them fill out new blocks, I decided that the amount hidden would be minimal, and rather took a photo of every single block so that Amber and her husband would be able to look back at them in the future, even if a letter or two was cut off by the seam allowance in the finished quilt.

A completed block. This guest did it perfectly!

After collecting all the blocks (some guests dropped them off at the shop the following week, haha!), all that was left was to make the nine-patch blocks and assemble the quilt. I say “all that was left” as though it wasn’t a big deal, but those nine-patch blocks took awhile to get all pieced together. However, piecing with Essex Linen is such a joy – it is slightly thicker than regular quilting cotton and since I don’t pre-wash quilting fabric, has a sturdiness and rigidity to it that really helps with piecing. Once washed, that stiffness goes away, so I purposefully leave it unwashed to piece with.

Completed nine-patch blocks

With the nine-patch blocks complete, I laid out all of the blocks and made sure that the colours were distributed well across the quilt. Once assembled, Amber chose a Mammoth Flannel for the backing, requested Quilters Dream wool batting, and I dropped it off at Arrow Quilting for the long arm magic to happen. Lindsey from Arrow Quilting chose a vine motif (I asked for something leafy and natural) as a symbol of growth in the marriage.  It is perfect.

Choosing the backing

Binding it with one of the linens already used on the quilt top was done, and now all that is left to do is deliver it to Amber and her husband!

Detail of the backing, quilting, and binding

Although it was a lot of work, it was a pleasure to do. If I ever make one again, my plan is to use colourful washi tape for attaching the blocks to the template to ensure that the guests don’t write over it. That should do the trick, right? Or do you have a better idea? If so, please let me know!

I’m happy to share the template that I used. I printed it on cardstock so it would hold the weight of the linen well. You can download it by clicking on the photo of it above, or email me at info@piecefabric.co and ask for it and I'll send it right over to you! It’s a simple Word document, so feel free to make adjustments to suit your event!

And one more tip – if you do this and use Essex Linen or another textured fabric, use fabric markers instead of fabric pens. The fabric pens worked really well on smooth quilting cotton, but got caught in the texture of the linen and made those blocks look messy.

Completed quilt

Any questions about this quilt? I’d love to hear from you if you have any!

Shop Essex Linen here:
https://piecefabric.co/collections/essex-linen