Double Happiness Wedding Polka
89" x 89"
2026
Made for beloved daughter Hayley’s wedding quilt, this was an exhilarating, all-consuming, and demanding challenge from start to finish!
Concepts for this original design included Hayley’s Polish heritage, fiancé Kelyn’s Taiwanese heritage, their love of nature and animals and their positive outlook on the adventures, opportunities and challenges that life offers!
Reflecting Hayley’s Polish heritage are designs inspired by and adapted from the Polish folk art of paper cutting called wycinanki. These floral and bird designs are often rendered in bright and saturated colors. The wycinanki in this quilt include florals, flying cats, and crazy-eyed roosters. Kelyn’s Chinese heritage is symbolized by the inclusion of the Double Happiness icon (shuāngxi), a design that combines two characters that mean joy or happiness, and stands for a strong, happy marriage. It is bordered by a dragon symbolizing the male elements of power, prosperity, and strength, and the phoenix representing the female elements of beauty, warmth, and grace.
Hayley and Kelyn’s joyful union is also represented by the happy couple at the center, sure to be dancing to a polka. This design is adapted from the logo of Zyviek beer (a Polish brand); the woman is wearing a traditional costume of the Krakow region, the man’s costume has been adapted to reflect a traditional Chinese groom’s (thank you ChatGPT.) Two of Hayley and Kelyn’s spirit animals, otters, are hidden in the quilting. I wonder if they will ever find them!
Nearly all techniques are accomplished by stationary machine: piecing, applique, zigzag and blanket stitch embroidery, walking foot quilting, and free motion quilting. The sleeve on back was attached by hand. Original design.
Some quilt-in-process pictures:
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