Wedding Lasso or Wedding Cord

A friend asked me to make her a wedding lasso for her wedding. A wedding lasso is worn by the couple, each has a loop over their neck, that connects them through the ceremony.

 I had no idea what it was or what exactly she wanted. It was explained to me that a wedding lasso/wedding cord was two cords tied together to represent the binding of marriage. Many are made of Rosary Beads. Some are made from cord or rope. My friend wanted rope. She also requested a flower at the union of the lasso. 

 I had no idea what to do, so I decided to make one and then show my friend so she could tell me what to change. She liked it so I didn't have to change anything. 

The cat was too interested in the wedding lasso, so I cut off a piece of unused cord to play with. 

Making a standing thread cutter

I recently saw an item for sale much like the one above. It is used for cutting chains of quilt blocks apart. It was made of plastic, in a cone shape, and contained what looked like a seam ripper on the top. I have been using my own gizmo for a long time, years, and it was free. 

Mine is made from an empty thread spool used as the base. Then the cap of a seam ripper is inserted in the hole of the spool. Finally, the seam ripper is inserted into the cap, sharp side up when I am cutting and sharp side down when not in use. Tada! My own standing thread cutter and it was free. It also doubles as a cone holder. I have a few large cones that would wobble if I didn't use the above on the vertical spool holder of my sewing machine. 

The cap is hot glued into the spool to help it stay in place. If the seam ripper gets dull, I can exchange it with a different one. Five of mine (many were wonderful gifts) fit the lid.

I tried finding the original item again, but can't remember where I saw it. I may have remembered the cost incorrectly, around $14. In the course of searching, I found a three dimensional triangle shaped one, around $5, and a small metal item costing over $16. So in my mind, I have saved between $5 and $16 that can go toward fabric. 

  

A Hidden Path to the Wild Side

I decided to name this quilt, Hidden Path to the Wild Side, because on one side,  I used the pattern for Hidden Wells ( Hidden Wells Tutorial ), which is how I got the "Hidden" part of the name. I also used a wedge template to get a curving "Path". Finally, I used cheetah print fabric in the quilt. Thus the "wild". 

Here is the Hidden Wells Pattern. Once I took a photo of the other side, the dogs ran over and I couldn't get them out of the shot, so I gave up. 

This is a close up of one of the corners and it shows the fabric better. On the Hidden Wells side, I quilted in the ditch. Then on the curving side, in the middle, I followed the curves echoing the seems. On the edges, the above image, I quilted in the ditch down the straight part of the the wedge section.  

This is one of my patches. This is how I covered up some of my mistakes. I tried taking the quilting out three times as I repeated to make mistakes almost in the same spots. I couldn't eliminate the wrinkle and puckering, so I decided to hide the mistakes instead of ripping the thread out until I got it right. I might never have gotten this quilt finished with that method.