may the quilt force be with you - a gradu-mas gift

so far, in the spirit of trying new patterns, i've made quilts for my aunt, my mom and my cousin the last few christmases.
it was only a matter of time before i made one of the brothers something, and it just so happened to be that my sister's husband ben was also graduating with his bachelor's degree and teaching credential at christmas time as well.  i had this pattern i wanted to try out before using it as a music quilt (so yes, you'll see version 2 real soon!) and had the idea to do it in a variety of fandoms that ben likes, thinking i could use fabric from my stash.  well, it turned out that ben only likes star wars these days...
on a whim, i wandered joanns and was instantly inspired by the various blue, black and gray star wars prints i found that also appeared to be relatively new.  i snagged a piece of each of them, as well as some coordinating quilting cottons to offset all of the novelty licenced prints.
one section of the quilt requires 4 1/2" squares, which i managed to get 60 out of... which i thought was just enough.  nope... i needed 90.  so since ben was graduating to be a math teacher, i ran out to a local quilt shop to get a chunk of blue math themed fabric to mix in to the front as well as add a piece to the backing to tie it all together.
when i start to layout these overly scrappy quilts, i have to remind myself that no matter how hard i try, one print on two different blocks is bound to touch.  i managed to do rather well with balancing out the star wars prints, which was the main goal of having them look more scattered away from their similar prints and everything.  usually i do everything one piece at a time for each block, but with this one i had to do each block one at a time to make sure i didn't mix anything up and accidentally have some sideways droids or something.
i almost went for a solid/tonal print for the borders, but these droids were too cute to pass up.  yeah, i just called the droids cute, ben.  sorry not sorry.  i pulled this black from my stash to use as the binding, which really helped tie it all together.  the quilting is a pantograph called "malachite" which i used on my garden snails 2.0, and it really helped bring that all over texture to the quilt without being too boxy or loopy.
pew pew
they struggled a bit with folding up the quilt, but to be fair... it said it was a lap quilt, but it definitely fit on both of our queen sized beds.
so now that ben has gotten his own "lap quilt," who will be next?  will markham get something sandwich shop ninja themed?  or will joshua get something... black?  gray?  i don't know about him yet... ha!  brothers can be so difficult.
pattern:  quick as a wink - scottie dog quilts
quilt count: 128

star wars strip quilt for an itty bitty jedi

when my coworker drew told me his wife was expecting, i got super excited for him.
and then the internal "do i make him a quilt?" struggle began.  i didn't want to set the bar that i'd make ALL my coworkers baby quilts (granted, not many of them are in committed relationships like so) but he IS a pretty cool guy.  so clearly by this post, you can tell that i decided to make him a quilt.  and it worked perfectly with my stash busting fest!
i had plenty of scraps left over from melissa & jared's fandom daisy chain and a good chunk of that was star wars.  if you know drew, and even if you don't, you know he loves star wars.  i put the thought of making it for him, and then when carrie fisher passed away, that triggered me to start on this quilt top for him.  i busted it out in a day, and only had to pick up one fabric as a filler (the r2d2s) and the backing fabric.
i was glad i still had some of this print that had the actual character faces on it, since drew is very about the characters.  i kept it to the original films the best i could, which worked well with the black, blue & white color scheme.  i was even able to include some of the blue sparkle to help break it up but still be a manly sparkle ;)
i loved that i was able to find this star wars flannel.  it was the perfect baby size, and tied in with the front of the quilt so well.  i used one of the prints i had the most left over of to use as the binding, so you can see hints of millennium falcons down the side.
and the remaining tag count down continues!
well, at least temporarily.  my mom said she was able to find and purchase more of these tags for me.  the order still says pending, so they might be here some day.
the little one (baby luke.  i bet you can guess why!) came over two months early, so i managed to get everything done in time just after his arrival.  last weekend, one of my coworkers threw drew & his wife a star wars themed baby shower.  since they already had the quilt (and pillowcases) that i made them, i busted out a few little burp cloths for them to use once they have the little guy home with them :)
i also found these awesome number & counting books on amazon that were right up their alley.
abc-3po
obi-123
the shower was great and from what i hear, baby luke is down to just one more test to pass before he can come home!  i am so excited to meet this little peanut and see these two grow as parents to a little jedi luke.

fandom filled amy butler's daisy chain quilt

another major project that was a long time planned was this beast!
melissa & jared got engaged on october 1st of 2015 and then after much debate set their wedding date for a year later.  i instantly knew i wanted to make them something that would blend a variety of their fandoms together and give them the perfect quilt to kick off their marriage.  much like andrew's disney i-spy quilt, the fabrics for this one were hunted far and wide to get the perfect combo without being too in your face and chaotic.
the fabrics used combine their enthusiasm for star wars, star trek, dr. who, marvel (avengers), zelda (particularly jared on that one), disney, music and harry potter.  i picked a color scheme that was subtle, mostly black & white with blue and red touches in there to keep it all together.  each fandom has anywhere from 2-6 prints (star wars had a lot with the force awakens coming out recently) which made for a nice variety on the blocks.  i chose the amy butler pattern again, since i was familiar with it and knew it would be the perfect way to blend all these fabrics together without them looking too uniformed. one of my perfect little mishaps, where thor fit perfectly inside the triangle point. there is one of harry potter playing quidditch as well, but i couldn't find him when i was photographing the details. it's seriously like an unintentional i-spy game!
when i was putting this quilt together, i texted my cousin often, feeling like this quilt could either turn out cool, or a big hot mess.  thankfully, it turned out pretty cool in my opinion.
i chose the blue sparkle to keep one color consistent, and since this looked rather spacey it tied right in to all the fandom-ness. i think if i had gone to the red side, it would have looked WAY different and potentially even an eyesore. ha!
the solid backing worked perfectly, and allowed the quilting to pop out just enough.
i actually got to deliver this to them a few weeks ago and see them open it (and then immediately spread it out on their bed) which was so much fun to see their reaction.  seriously, that's the best part... see?
pardon the crummy cell phone photo, but clearly all worth it.
happy one month and 9 day anniversary, melissa & jared!

boba fett pillow pet

ok, i suppose calling this a pillow pet is not even accurate, but it was a good enough rhyme for me.
i've had this post drafted out and apparently set to post since august.  oops!
waaaaay back at the beginning of the year (pre-aileen wedding.  pre-aileen birthday even) someone on a facebook group was looking for someone to test a pattern for her star wars mini quilt swap.  when i saw the design, i knew i had to try it out for her!  she sent me the pattern after a few tweaks, and i went about bought the perfect shades of kona cotton to make this boba fett creation.  i used pieces leftover from aileen & ben's wedding quilt for the background around his head.
i knew that aileen would really have no use for a mini quilt, so i turned him in to a pillow cover.  i used the same type of tutorial that i did for the beauty and the beast themed pillows last year, and it turned out great!  he's a little larger than your average throw pillow, so hopefully aileen and ben will find a home for him.  even though ben apparently despises throw pillows.
pattern designed by: radioactive_squirrel
and there you have it! consider this a hopeful reboot to catching up on posting.