Wednesday, April 25, 2018

disney sweater block quilt

Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for
Here it is, you know exactly what's in store
Now's the time we laugh until our sides get sore
Now's the time we crown the King of Fools!

whoa there just a minute...
no king of fools here, just one quilt that i am SO EXCITED to be blogging!
granted, it has been done for a good while now, but when your camera card reader goes missing, that leads to delays.  anywho... this quilt has been a long time coming, and i think officially my first sew along finish... and also i think the only sew along i have participated in.  AND the first paper piecing project i actually get to keep for myself!  some reason i keep giving those to babies...
drum roll please...
back in november of 2016, lisa mentioned a sew along being hosted on instagram for kidgiddy's ugly sweater block, just in time for the holiday season.  well, i wanted to join in the fun, but i didn't want to make christmas sweaters like everyone else.  i had two thoughts.  i can make cat sweaters or i can make disney sweaters.  i decided to go with the latter, due to my nostalgia for the 90's sweatshirts i had as a kid - you can see all my posts by searching the tag disney sweater blocks on instagram.  in all, i believe i had 84 blocks by the end, and wanted a quilt big enough to become my "travel quilt" since i like to take my own quilt when i stay over places.  i went with a "plus" layout with a black and white spotted fabric to make the pluses stand out more.  my initial plan was a super cute yet simple mickey fabric that was black with little white mickey silhouettes on it.  sadly, i couldn't find any yardage of it when it came time.  while some are cut from the same fabric, no two sweaters are the same, and i was quite impressed with how many different characters i was able to find.
now since they're so small in the large photo... for the detail photo spam!
when i was planning to quilt it, i was stumped.  obviously i wanted it quilted well, and i knew i would do it on the long arm.  i was nervous about my free motion skills, and i also didn't want to quilt over the sweaters, especially with black thread.  i decided to do big bubbles/pebbles to mimic the spots in the black and white fabric and also give a sort of "hidden mickey" essence - whether i successfully did that or not, i don't know!  after i quilted it on the long arm, i decided it still need a little refinement, so i used my walking foot on my home machine and  stitched around the plus shapes to frame up the quilting when you looked at the back.  it isn't perfect, but i love it!
did i get some comments while i was quilting this?  you betcha.
"oh, this must be for a little one!"
no, it's for me!
"oh... so you like FROZEN?" (mind you, there are like 4 frozen blocks on this entire quilt...)
bah, whatever ladies.  pretty sure they were just jealous they didn't come up with the idea!
of course, now it is far too warm outside to layer up two quilts on my bed, let alone flannel ones, so now this just lays there, longing for cooler weather, much like myself.
block pattern: the original ugly christmas sweater block
total quilt count: 110

1 comment:

  1. This quilt is delightful! Your work is beautiful, as always.

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