Wedding gifts

I went to my first double wedding last September.  The brides were sisters, two lovely ladies that I had the pleasure of meeting several years ago.

Because I procrastinated, I was only able to put together a gift for them from their registry, kitchen ware of some kind for both of them.  However, I resolved to fix that problem, so I began tossing around ideas of what I could make them. 

During the wedding reception I started writing a poem for each of the couples.  My first idea was to write up their separate poems in some nice calligraphy, and then quill a border around it, taking inspiration from the flowers in their bouquets.  After the poems turned out less than satisfactory, the idea went to the back burner.

And stayed there until Christmas.  Christmas, however, pulled it back to the front when I received (among other things) a book on quilled flowers.  Upon seeing the stunning sunflowers, I had my idea.  I got on Facebook, found pictures of their bouquets, and created quilled pictures accordingly.

Here is Katie's:

(click picture to enlarge)

The prominent flower in both bouquets was a lovely sunflower.  There were also white roses, some greenery, and, in Katie's, hydrangea. 

Here is Abigail's:

(click picture to enlarge)

Her bouquet turned out a little more difficult for me to put on paper.  She did not have hydrangea, and the two other things that stood out in her bouquet was a sprig of eucalyptus, and some shoots of goldenrod.  I really wanted to go with the eucalyptus, but the way it was in the arrangement, I could only picture it coming almost straight out of the picture frame, and this was not something I could manage without rigging something.  Also, I did not have the right green in my paper stash.  So goldenrod it was.

 

 

I love goldenrod.  I really do.  But may I never have cause to quill it ever again.  Each "blossom" was created by fringing a 3/16" wide piece of paper.  There are approximately 130 blossoms in this single spring.  Each one has about four "fringes" (or whatever you would call it).  Once each piece was twirled around and glued, I then had to glue each one in place.  A very long process.  And unfortunately, I was never fully satisfied with the end result.  So maybe someday I will give it another go.