WIP Wednesday - Super Mario Brothers Quilt in Progress

I've set aside the Superman Remixed quilt temporarily to work on a quilt with a Super Mario Brothers theme. The quilt is for Dominic, the grandson of my good friend Thomasina W. The idea came from a post that I shared on Facebook that had a picture of a Super Mario Brother, with a link on how to turn an image into a quilt pattern. See here. Thomasina told me that her grandson would like it becuase he likes Super Mario Brothers. Within a few minutes I decided to make a Super Mario Brothers quilt. We agreed that there were way too many pieces in the pictured quilt pattern (think counted cross-stitch pattern) but I figured I could find theme fabric and go from there.

After searching the internet for a while, I found the fabric above at Spoonflower.com. Spoonflower is not your regular online fabric store. You choose a design you like (or create your own), select a size and fabric, and Spoonflower will print the fabric for you to order. I bought from Spoonflower a few years ago -- the Boston Terrier themed fabric for Cristine's Bosties. Just to let you know, the fabric is a bit pricey, $14.00 plus $1.00 shipping for a fat quarter in organic cotton sateen (recommended over flimsier basic combed cotton). I ordered a fat quarter of the sateen both times.

Fabrics

Electric Quilt sketch

Light blue fabric represents the theme fabric. Normally I can squeeze nine 5.5" cut squares out of a fat quarter, and that's what I went with for this design.

Fabric cut 5.5" square - nine of these

Narrow red strips attached to the sides

Narrow red strips attached to top and bottom

Nine Super Mario Brothers blocks done

Wide blue sashing will be added next, followed by a narrow red inner border, then a wide blue border.

Dominic's birthday is mid-August. I plan to get the quilt top done in the next couple of days, and probably finish the quilt in next week so Thomasina can give the quilt to Dominic at his birthday party.

Debbie

WIP Wednesday - Superman Remixed Quilt Top Finished

Tonight I finished Superman Remixed quilt top.

Quilt top

Close-up

Much of the quilt top is made from leftover fabrics from two earlier Superman quilts. I filled in with other stash fabrics. I may finish the quilt this weekend. The quilt will be donated to a local agency that helps abused children and adults.

Debbie

Make It Monday - Superman Blocks Finished

I finished the last of the Superman blocks tonight. 

The blocks are made partly from scraps leftover from two earlier Superman quilts. I'll probably sew the blocks together tomorrow night. The quilt will be given to a local agency that helps kids and adults who have been abused.

Debbie

WIP Wednesday - More Superman Blocks

Tonight I made another set of five Superman blocks, made partly from scraps from two previous Superman quilts. Ten more blocks to go.

Debbie

Like my Facebook page Traveling Quilter and get more updates on my quilting and my travels.

Make It Monday - Rabbits and Flowers Quilt Finish

Last night I finished Rabbits and Flowers, a quilt for co-worker Kristina R. Today was her last day at the office, as she and her family are moving out of the area. I found out about a week ago that she was leaving, and I decided to make her a quilt. My spy told me that Kristina likes rabbits, and when I did some spying of my own, I noticed a couple of personal items in purple.

Rabbits and Flowers
For co-worker Kristina R., who likes rabbits.
Partly from stash. Original design. 55" square.
Began 7/2/2014, completed 7/6/2014.

Close-up

Theme fabrics had been in my stash for years. I don't think they are from the same line of fabrics, but they work well together. Rabbit squares are fussy-cut.

I was able to get 12 fussy-cut squares in the rabbit fabric.

I got 9 squares from the floral. Trying a layout.

Another layout

Auditioning dark purples to fill the remaining spaces

I went with the one on the right, which is a tad lighter than the other.

This and the next couple of photos: trying out placement of dark purple squares.

This was my favorite. The diamond shape seemed to add some movement.

White-on-white squares attached

Sewn into five columns

Quilt top finished

Close-up

Once again, the finished quilt

I gave the quilt to Kristina this afternoon. She was surprised and happy to get a quilt. Her mom happens to work in the office and I invited her to the presentation, which made it a little more special. 

Enjoy your quilt, Kristina!

Debbie

WIP Wednesday 7/2/2014

I've set aside Superman Remixed temporarily to work on a quick quilt, for co-worker Kristina, who is leaving the office soon. My spy tells me that Kristina likes rabbits. My own spying of her desk area reveals that she likes purple, too.

I've had both of the fabrics in my stash for years. I don't think they're from the same line, but they look really good together.

Electric Quilt sketch

Rabbit fabric

Using template to make a rabbit the center of each square. Traced around the template with a Frixion pen. The ink disappears with the touch of an iron.

Square drawn

Was able to cut 12 squares from the 1/2 yard of rabbit fabric. These are the two variations. I'll cut as many squares of the floral print as I can, but there's only a fat quarter. I'll need to fill in a few squares with another fabric, to be determined later.

Each square will be surrounded by wide sashing in this white-on-white print. 

The quilt has a quick deadline. The design is simple, so it should go quickly.

Debbie

Make It Monday 6/30/2014

Fabrics for Superman quilt

Each column plus Superman print on bottom will make 5 scrappy blocks

Cut Superman print 13" square, set aside for later

Bottom layer, also 13" square

None of the second Superman print was 13" square. I'd have to layer scraps. Here I've cut the largest piece 13" wide and a little shy of 13" tall.

Second scrap - more than 5" tall and more than 6.5" wide.

Third scrap - same as above

There are areas of overlap, which will be resolved in cutting later.

This is probably the fourth layer. Having to do some overlapping again.

Fourth layer complete

Brought back the Superman square, placed on top.

First cut, through all 5+ layers.

Second cut

Third cut - added since last blog post. It makes the overall design seem more complicated, eliminates the need to trim a 1/2" from the edge of a long strip.

All four sections

Next I went through each stack, removing the "waste" strips.

Here they are for this first set of blocks.

Once I removed all of the waste strips, I re-organized the sections Stack the Deck style so that there was a variety of fabrics in each block, with no exact repeats.

First block, top and bottom pairs of fabrics sewn together

First block completed

First five Superman blocks done

I repeated the steps to make the second set of blocks - 10 Superman blocks done, in total.

There are three more sets of five blocks to go. I should have them finished by the weekend.

Debbie