I promise I'm still alive! I've holed myself up in my sewing room to finish a Star Wars baby quilt. I made a deadline for myself - it needed to be done by the baby shower. I hate showing up to a shower with just a bare-bones quilt top and taking it back home with me at the end. That needs to stop. I will not accept tardiness or procrastination from myself when it comes to sewing projects. You don't star a new project until the next one is finished.
Okay, I'm done with my pep talk.
The last stitch was sewn in the day before the baby shower. :fist pump:
I found all the patterns (for free!) at Fandom in Stitches. If there is a movie or TV show or book that has a fan club, they most likely have paper pieced quilt blocks to go with it.
I had waaaaaaaaaaay too much fun making these. And, for the most part, they are all scraps or fabrics that I had in my stash! :double fist pump:
The process of paper piecing is easy. Sew seam, iron down, cut out next piece of fabric, sew seam, repeat.
The one BIG snafu that I ran into was the issue of uneven tugging. Since the bias of each piece of fabric in the blocks goes every which way, there is a lot of shifting and pulling that they exert on each other. Hopefully, next time, I'll be able to avoid that by basting the edges of the blocks as soon as I finish them.
For the sashing and borders, I found some really cool fabrics at the store - the silver is actually a gray with silver accents. Looks very Star Wars-y to me. The red is marbled with a darker red, so it adds more detail and interest there as well.
Again, I cheated with the binding. I bought extra wide double fold bias tape instead of making my own. :shrugs:
I really like the simplicity of the blocks without the faces, so I did minimal embroidery. Chewie got eyes. Otherwise he looked like a dog in need of a haircut.
Yoda got his wrinkles. You can't be 900 years old and have silky smooth skin (unless you're a time lord, but that's a different fandom).
R2D2 was probably the most time-consuming block since there are so many teeny-tiny pieces. I think he's my favorite though. ^_^
And you can't neglect the back of the quilt! I found some fun Star Wars flannel at the fabric store. Then I made the Millennium Falcon for the signature and name block and then offset it with light sabers. You can't have Star Wars without light sabers.
After deliberating over what sort of catchy name I should give the quilt, I landed on a pun. 'It's a Wrap!' Please tell me you get that. ;)
Well, I'm off to go work on my next sewing project!
Until next time!
SG
