Wine, weddings and quilting

A few weeks ago our eldest son proposed to his girlfriend and, fortunately as he had already bought the ring, the answer was yes :)

Wedding planning is, therefore, featuring heavily in their lives at the minute and more specifically wedding venue hunting. As they live in London and the wedding will take place further afield they wanted to keep a record of their search by pinning locations on a map. However, as they currently live in brand-new rented accommodation they weren't keen to pepper their shiny, new walls with pinholes. Their solution was to ask Mum if she could sew something suitable!

So I got my thinking cap on and decided that this was the perfect excuse to cut into some of that bargain fabric.

They were looking for a padded mat to keep on their desk that would be thick enough to pin a map to without marking the desk. I decided that the wine bottle fabric would be ideal for the front of the mat with the pink birds for the back.

As we were meeting up with the happy couple a week after the request was made time was of the essence, so piecing was out!  I knew that wadding wasn't going to be thick enough for the pins but I wanted to do more than make a pillowcase for the 1/2" thick foam sheet that I had ordered. I decided to make a quilt sandwich for the front of the mat and then add the foam sheet as a filling.  So I took a deep breath and quilted the wine bottle fabric top with FMQ lettering in appropriate wording!

I quilted the bottom row of the top with their names as I was getting really carried away by then, but I forgot to take a photograph of that! I made the quilt with an envelope back so that when the map is no longer needed they can take the foam pad out and be left with a quilt. Although quite what state it will be in when they have finished pinning things to it is anyone's guess :)

Son's faith in the ability of Mum to "sew something suitable" is still intact until the next challenge! Our youngest son has put in a request for patchwork Pyjama trousers, but I am still working up the nerve to tackle them. Fortunately he is very patient :)

If like me, you have tried something new this month share your successes and failures at the Link Party for

The link opens tomorrow (25th) so come back then to link up your New to You posts. I would love to see what you have been trying out in May.

Linking up this finish to 

Crazy Mom Quilts