Quilter’s Name: Kerri Street-Manuel from Oklahoma
Name of Pattern: Original Design
Featured Date: 07-31-24
Hello from Oklahoma! My name is Kerri Street-Manuel. I’m married to Steve, and we have three grown kids and four grandkids. I am 55 and I just started quilting about 3 years ago. I am blessed with close friends who are quilters and sewists; they have taught me so much, especially my friend Alana who taught me how to quilt. I’ve been a porcelain artist (aka painter) for over 20 years. Three years ago I was painting lots of miniature porcelain to put in a dollhouse my husband and I made for the granddaughters; that project led to making mini-quilts. So it was kind of a natural progression to quilt throws, and thus began my lessons with Alana. I ended up making 21 quilts for Christmas that year.

A few months ago I got a phone call from my son-in-law’s friend, asking if I could do a wedding dress quilt. My answer was, “A what?” I had never heard of a wedding dress quilt. But I’m usually up for a creative challenge so I agreed to take it on. I only needed to make the quilt large enough to drape over the edges of a queen sized bed, and about 21″ tall. That made it less intimidating for me. (Thank goodness for Pinterest!)


Marijo came right over with four dresses – three wedding dresses and her grandmother’s hand-sewn prom dress from the 40s. Grandma also made the two wedding dresses for her daughter, Marijo’s mother.
Two of the wedding dresses were used in this quilt. All of the satin is from Marijo’s own wedding in 2016 and it was store bought. The lace that is laid over the satin is from Marijo’s mother’s first wedding dress, handmade by Marijo’s grandmother in 1966. I hated having to take that dress apart, it was just so meticulously sewn and the quality was beyond anything I’ve seen in bridal stores. It was all lace, sewn to a liner. There was also a matching floor-length drape that served as a jacket. We also used some very dark navy with pansies on it that she picked out at the fabric store, and some blue velvet. Her wedding colors were navy and silver so she wanted to add those to the quilt.


I started sketching out ideas, and I sewed a few ‘trial’ blocks. It didn’t take long to land on a design that Marijo loved. Once we had that settled I got to work hand-washing old dresses, taking apart the newer dress and cutting. I decided to lay the quilt out in three sections, with the center being the showpiece. I made two sections of 9 square blocks each that would flank the center section. Those went together fairly easily and quickly. I sewed the lace from her mother’s wedding dress to the satin from her own dress, then added the navy ribbon bows with the center rhinestones.


The center section is made from the bodice of Marijo’s dress. I was able to piece it in a way that made one horizontal section and two small side sections. There wasn’t enough to do the bottom horizontal section, so I used satin from the skirt of the dress to make the pleats. I soon discovered that it needed to be tacked down in several places for two reasons: one, to make it match the actual bodice sections, and two, to secure the fabric to the batting. After studying the quilt from several angles, I decided to use some bling for the tacks. Those navy ribbons with the rhinestone centers definitely influenced that idea. I used some pearl and rhinestone buttons first, then added rhinestones from a separate piece that had been worn around the waist of the dress.


The blue center square surrounded by the bodice pieces is blue velvet. The lace and satin bows came from the floor-length drape that accompanied the mother’s dress. The floral piece with roses was on the hanger from the bridal shop where the newer dress was purchased. She was able to pop it right off. I sewed it down by hand and added blue metallic ribbon to fill it out. The border of the quilt was done with the blue velvet. I used dark blue cotton for the binding.

This quilt was a lot of fun to make. For me it was an art project. I learned so much, beginning with how to wash vintage wedding gowns. I have since been gifted two wedding dresses with instructions to “do whatever you want with it.” I plan to make some wall hangings and some donation gowns for babies. Thank you for the chance to share my quilt project with your subscribers.
Kerri
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Stunning, beautiful, full of memories. Beautiful quilt to be extremely proud of.