Kim's Wedding Dress aka Crazy Quilt

My Daughter’s Wedding Dress Crazy Quilt
Dean Deerfield © 2008



Twenty years ago my daughter announced her future wedding plans to me. The plans included me making her dress, cake, and everything else that goes with a wedding. I told her to find a picture of a dress she liked and we would do something similar, but keep it simple.. The picture below is the result of that search.

I was lucky enough to find a fabric store that carried fancy fabric. They did not have the lace, but had a place in France where they could order it, and the price was $125.00 a yard. Thank goodness Kim was very small and I didn’t need very much lace. The dress in the picture was silk dupioni. I made Kim’s dress from a nice bridal satin.
The two pictures below are the end result of the dress I made for her.

After the wedding, the dress was hung in my closet, and that is where it stayed for years, until I started cleaning out my house. I retired, sold my house. and moved to another city. I called her and ask her what she wanted me to do with the dress. We decided to make the crazy quilt. I was unsuccessful in finding the attendants’ dresses. My plan had been to make it blue and white, but it turned out more colorful. The choice of color came from a very old piece of variegated tatting my sister had made. It had blue, pink, purple, green, and yellow in it.
Each block has a piece of lace from the dress. Family memorabilia is used in the embellishments. A few of the bows from the dress are left in tact.
If I had this choice to make again, I would make the whole crazy quilt in the white satin, and embellish it with one color, the color blue she had in her wedding. The quilt would look more like a wedding dress quilt, but it still turned out to be a pretty quilt.
Below are pictures of the quilt. It still is not finished, but almost. I have a few three more blocks to embellish, then I can finish. You can see the quilt in the photo below.

Kim's wedding dress aka Crazy Quilt

Houston International Quilt Festival

The Houston quilt show was wonderful and I had such a great time. One of the guilds I belong to gave me a $500.00 scholarship to take classes. That helped to make the trip enjoyable. This was my first time to take classes and I really enjoyed the classes I took. I was there from Tuesday until Sunday, leaving early Sunday morning. I have already started saving for next year.

There were people there from some of the chat sites and it was fun to meet them and have a face to go with the names. I am still looking for a package of dye and a bag of droppers. I hope they show up and didn't get lost in the shuffle.

I made a point of sewing on the new 12 needle Baby Lock felting machine. It is great and they had an unbelievable special show price on it. Did I buy one, what do you think. Hey!!! it was less than half what they retail for. What else could I do? Naturally the next thing was to find roving. I only have a trash bag full already, but I did find some wonderful natural roving with the most amazing color and patterns. Then there was the curly tags that were to die for, and had to have some of those. One thing just leads to another.

I helped a new young mother with her triplets for two months to make extra money for the trip. They were the cutiest little things and I fell in love with them. Three little boys, and the smallest one was so precious. Austin was his name, and I will post pictures in a day or so.

Finished Block of the Month Crazy Quilt

Tracy's Wedding Shoes

Tracy's Wedding Shoes

Art Quilts

This quilt is done from a picture I took

of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park at sunset. When the sun hits the mountains in the evening they take on this crimson color and are beautiful. The Rio Grande runs at the base of the mountains and the cacti is blooming in the foreground. This quilt is about 28" x 34". Each year at one of the quilt guilds I belong to, we purchase a packet of fabric to use in a challenge the next year. This was our 2008 challenge and I am thrilled to report that I won first place.

Yucca with two blooms. All pieces in domes are about 13" high. I have some nice pieces packed away that I don't have pictures of. I am having so much fun with this blog I might have to go unpack them and take pictures.

This picture is not great, but it is of three pieces. An old post gate with yuccas, Ocatillo, and a fence corner with yucca and prickly pear.

This well is about 13" tall with prickly pear, yucca, and a dead tree. The glass dome it is under has a little glare.

Clay Sculptures

I use ceramic clay, stone ware, and porcelain clay. Old building material in West Texas included adobe bricks, and poles. I use cacti a lot in my art work. The semi desert I live in supplies an abundance of resources, and I love them all. This piece has a prickly pear cactus along side a broken down adobe well. The piece is about 8" tall, and6" wide.

December Block

November Block

October Block

September Block

August Block

July Block

This is not exactly a pastel block, but what else could I use for July.

June Block

Purple is the color of so many flowers that bloom in the summer, thus, purple for June

May Block

The May block has fabrics with soft spring flowers. The two green embellishments are tatted pieces my sister made and sent to me to make earrings. They are about three inches long. I love large earrings, but these were a bit much. They also found a home on the cq.

April Block

Blue for April Showers

March Block

Green for March and St. Patrick's Day

February Block

I love pastel colors, and monochrome, so I chose pink for February and Valentine's month.

January Block

We did white for January to suggest snow and ice. My MOP collection is in the top left corner and I have posted a close up for you to see more detail.

January Block

Close up of my Mother-of-Pearl button and buckle collection. I hated to part with them, but crazy quilts are great homes for collections.