Twilight Saga Charity Quilt: I Am Switzerland

I am a neutral country. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by territorial disputes between mythical creatures.
–Bella Swan, Eclipse, page 143

I Am Switzerland
Pattern by Cat and pieced by Iris; embroidered quote by Jerri Lynn for our Give-to-Win Twilight Saga Charity Quilt.

From Iris:
There's something about this block that I really love. It's simple, but the combination of the sparkliness of the the Fairy Frost, the different textures, and the embroidery really appeal to me. I really loved putting this block together for such a special quilt.

From Cat:
I have been to Switzerland in the past as I have friends there and I noticed that a lot of the towns displayed shields for the country and region more so than flags, so to represent Bella’s “I am Switzerland” stance I created a Swiss Shield pattern. Although I hadn't read Breaking Dawn yet when I designed it, it was a good choice as Bella’s special gift as a vampire was to shield her loved ones, so this is a perfect representation for Bella.

For every $5 donation to George Mark Children's House, you get one chance to win this quilt. Visit the Twilight Saga Quilt Page for more details.

Make your donation

Twilight Saga Charity Quilt: Clock Tower at Volterra

A deep, booming chime echoed through the square. It throbbed in the stones under my feet. . . . I started screaming as I ran.

“Edward!” I screamed, knowing it was useless. The crowd was too loud, and my voice was breathless with exertion. But I couldn't stop screaming.

The clock tolled again.

. . . “Edward, no!” I screamed, but my voice was lost in the roar of the chime.

. . . The clock tolled, and he took a large stride toward the light.

“No!” I screamed. “Edward, look at me!”

He wasn't listening. He smiled very slightly. He raised his foot to take the step that would put him directly in the path of the sun.
–Bella Swan, New Moon, page 449–451

The Clock Tower at Volterra
Designed by Iris and adapted and pieced by Joyce as part of our Give-to-Win Twilight Saga Charity Quilt.

From Joyce:
I started with Iris’ Clock Tower block from New Moon, then watched the DVD a number of times. I decided to make this block similar to hers, but closer. I used the crackle white and brown fabric for the building. The base of the fountain is also the crackle fabric. , I used a blue striated with white fabric to fill the fountain, which looked like water to me. I originally did the fountain statue in the same crackle fabric, but it blended too much with the building, so I remade it in a dark red. I covered it with a sparkly organdy ribbon to make it look like water was falling from the fountain. I used a brighter red for the flags all over the building, and the black we used for most of the quilt in the windows to give some depth. The clock itself is white fabric, and I embroidered the hands so it was getting close to noon. I used a satin stitch to define edges and add some detail. All we need now is for Edward to appear in the doorway!

For every $5 donation to George Mark Children's House, you get one chance to win this quilt. Visit the Twilight Saga Quilt Page for more details.

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Twilight Saga Charity Quilt: Lion and Lamb

“Isabella.” He pronounced my full name carefully, then playfully ruffled my hair with his free hand. A shock ran through my body at his casual touch. “Bella, I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me.” He looked down, ashamed again. “The thought of you, still, white, cold . . . to never see you blush scarlet again, to never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses . . . it would be unendurable.” He lifted his glorious, agonized eyes to mine. “You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever.”

My head was spinning at the rapid change in direction our conversation had taken. From the cheerful topic of my impending demise, we were suddenly declaring ourselves. He waited, and even though I looked down to study our hands between us, I knew his golden eyes were on me.

“You already know how I feel, of course,” I finally said. “I’m here . . . which, roughly translated, means I would rather die than stay away from you.” I frowned. “I’m an idiot.”

“You are an idiot,” he agreed with a laugh. Our eyes met, and I laughed too. We laughed together at the idiocy and sheer impossibility of such a moment.

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb . . . ,” he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word.

“What a stupid lamb,” I sighed.

“What a sick, masochistic lion.”
–Edward Cullen & Bella Swan, Twilight, page 273–274

Lion and Lamb
Roaring Lion pattern by Linda Hibbert and pieced by Iris; Lamb pattern by Four Twin Sisters and pieced by Nicole as part of our Give-to-Win Twilight Saga Charity Quilt.

From Iris:
This lion is the same pattern that was used for the Stephenie Meyer quilt in 2009. I'd admired it since I first saw it and was very excited to give it a try. Originally I intended to use this in my personal Twilight quilt, but when the call for another charity quilt came, I felt it fitting to donate the lion to this cause. Having small children myself, any cause that benefits children is close to my heart.

For every $5 donation to George Mark Children's House, you get one chance to win this quilt. Visit the Twilight Saga Quilt Page for more details.

Make your donation

Stephenie Meyer Quilt: The Volturi: Clock Tower at Volterra

A deep, booming chime echoed through the square. It throbbed in the stones under my feet. . . . I started screaming as I ran.

“Edward!” I screamed, knowing it was useless. The crowd was too loud, and my voice was breathless with exertion. But I couldn't stop screaming.

The clock tolled again.

. . . “Edward, no!” I screamed, but my voice was lost in the roar of the chime.

. . . The clock tolled, and he took a large stride toward the light.

“No!” I screamed. “Edward, look at me!”

He wasn't listening. He smiled very slightly. He raised his foot to take the step that would put him directly in the path of the sun.
–Bella Swan, New Moon, page 449-451

The Volturi block has turned out to be my favorite that I designed and pieced for the Stephenie Quilt. Elizabeth originally suggested a tower to represent the Volturi, but it wasn’t in the original quilt plans. That kept gnawing at me. I felt that we needed the Volturi represented; they are an integral part of the Twilight world. One member had a baby and unfortunately but understandably chose not to participate, which left her block, the Wedding Flowers up for grabs. Since Shannon was already working on the Bella and Edward’s Wedding Dance block that gave us the perfect opportunity to substitute, and I greedily excitedly volunteered.

I have some wonderful architectural fabrics that I thought would be perfect! And right at that time filming in Montepulciano was in full swing…. I was inspired! I looked at the photos of the tower in Montepulciano and Volterra and really loved the filming location best. It was very inspirational to have great photos of the building with the flags and the custom built fountain. The challenge was to translate that wonderful setting into a 5” fabric block!

I pulled out my old engineering graphing paper one afternoon and drew it out, then laboriously went about figuring out the dimensions of everything. That was tough for me because I had to use increments of ⅛”, which my brain is not used to doing! I finished with dimensions around 11pm and while I was already tired, I was too excited to stop there! So I stayed up till 5:30 am cutting and piecing as carefully as I could. Of course I had to do a few re-calculations, some reverse sewing. There were many tiny pieces to cut, A LOT of fussy cutting, and I hit my low point at 4 am trying to piece a ¼” half square triangle for the alley/side building roof. But when I finally crawled in bed the block was pieced. The next day I toyed with printing out a real clock face and fountain top, but decided in the end simple pale fabric looked better and I embroidered the clock face, fountain, windows, door arch, and flagpoles with the machine, then the water sprays by hand.

My husband, who did read the books and liked the story well enough but doesn’t understand my obsession with it, suggested I put a sparkly figure in the alley!

Next step is to resize to 6” block to include in my individual Twilight Quilt. I might sketch it on the computer this time to make it easier to share!

Originally posted block on TwilightMoms thread: “A Quilt for Stephenie Meyer”

Iris

Stephenie Meyer Quilt: Edward's Crystal Heart

You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours. –Edward Cullen, Eclipse, page 195

[Edward] pulled my left wrist away from my leg, and touched the silver bracelet for just a moment. Then he gave me my arm back.

I examined it cautiously. On the opposite side of the chain from the wolf, there now hung a brilliant heart-shaped crystal. It was cut in a million facets, so that even in the subdued light shining from the lamp, it sparkled. I inhaled a low gasp.

“It was my mother’s.” He shrugged deprecatingly. “I inherited quite a few baubles like this. I’ve given some to Esme and Alice both. So, clearly, this is not a big deal in any way.”

I smiled ruefully at his assurance.

“But I thought it was a good representation,” he continued. “It’s hard and cold.” He laughed. “And it throws rainbows in the sunlight.”

“You forgot the most important similarity,” I murmured. “It’s beautiful.”

“My heart is just as silent,” he mused. “And it, too, is yours.”

I twisted my wrist so the heart would glimmer. “Thank you. For both.” –Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, Eclipse, page 438–439

This was my second attempt at designing a paper piece pattern.  I had just purchased a bracelet that had this fabulous crystal heart. I thought it was lovely the way the facets were cut so that it looks like a star inside the heart. I wanted to recreate that look, with the light coming in from one direction so that the left side is lighter and the right side is darker but overall there is a star inside.  It did not come easily.  I started with part of a drawing of a cut diamond (1), opening it up in Photoshop, tracing each line and adding two lines to make the bottom point,  I then drew piecing lines around the perimeter. (2)  The resulting pieced heart did not make me happy. (3)  I did not like how the top and bottom rays of the star are sliced down the middle and was not happy with the plain gray fabric I used for the darkest facets.  So I started again in Photoshop and hunted down a Michael Miller Fairy Frost in Platinum to use.  The whole thing had to sparkle, even the shadows!

My second attempt was much better, but having limited experience designing PP patterns, just once before, I could not reconcile the way I had to piece the inside of the heart with how the outside was being pieced.  I'm sure Cat would look at it and know what to do, but I felt satisfied with it. I was able to piece it fine, just at the end when piecing the background at the cusp, I had to rip out the foundation paper (a), cut the extra material (b), refold the piece in half and sew on the new line to join them up (c). Maybe confusing, but it was good enough for me!

Stephenie Meyer Quilt: The Meadow

I reached the edge of the pool of light and stepped through the last fringe of ferns into the loveliest place I had ever seen. The meadow was small, perfectly round, and filled with wildflowers – violet, yellow and soft white. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the bubbling music of a stream. The sun was directly overhead, filling the circle with a haze of buttery sunshine. I walked slowly, awestruck, through the soft grass, swaying flowers, and warm, gilded air. –Bella Swan, Twilight, page 259

I miss brown.  Everything that’s supposed to be brown – tree trunks, rocks, dirt – is all covered up with squashy green stuff here. - Bella Swan, Twilight, pg 228

When we were divvying up blocks for this quilt, I knew immediately I wanted to make a cute little meadow.  Meadows covered in wildflowers in the afternoon sun are my ideal place to be.  Edward’s Meadow was my first foray into designing my own Paper Pieced Pattern.  Since I was only going to be working with a 5” square I wanted to keep it simple.  I had seen Wanda’s cute little triangle trees from her Forks Sign block, and decided that’s what I wanted mine to be.  I sketched it out on graph paper, scanned it in, then drew the lines and colored the pattern in Photoshop Elements.   I’ve been playing with Photoshop for years, but this is the first time I ever even used the drawing tool.  After lots of googling, asking the hubby (who uses Photoshop CS for work), and trial and error, I was happy with my design after a few days.  Fabric picking is always one of my favorite parts of a project.  I zeroed in on most of the fabrics right away (love that fairy frost for the stream sparkling in the sun) but the hard one was the meadow itself.  I searched all the local stores and some online, but couldn’t find something that was green with bits of violet, yellow and white.  I finally used a kid’s novelty print I’d had for years.   It’s a flannel, which I wasn’t sure I’d like, but in the end it’s cute, as I envision the meadow being.  I appliquéd a brown log (with green spots for moss) on top to fill in some of the space. 

Stephenie Meyer Quilt: Alice & Jasper

Of the three boys, one ... was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blond. ... The short girl was pixielike, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction.
–Bella Swan, Twilight, page 18

“That's ... Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife. They're all together though —Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together.” –Jessica Stanley, Twilight, page 20

“I was in Philadelphia. There was a storm, and I was out during the day — something I was not completely comfortable with yet. I knew standing in the rain would attract attention, so I ducked into a little half-empty diner. My eyes were dark enough that no one would notice them, though this meant I was thirsty, and that worried me a little.

“She was there — expecting me, naturally.” He chuckled once. “She hopped down from the high stool at the counter as soon as I walked in and came directly toward me. That's the only interpretation of her behavior my past had to offer. But she was smiling. And the emotions that were emanating from her were like nothing I'd ever felt before.

“‘You've kept me waiting a long time,’ she said.”

I didn't realize Alice had come to stand behind me again.

“And you ducked your head, like a good Southern gentleman, and said, ‘I'm sorry, ma'am.’” Alice laughed at the memory.

Jasper smiled down at her. “You held out your hand, and I took it without stopping to make sense of what I was doing. For the first time in almost a century, I felt hope.” –Jasper Hale, Alice Cullen and Bella Swan, Eclipse, page 301

Iris created the image in the crystal ball, layering different elements that represent Jasper in photo shop, including Jackson Rathbone's eyes. The image was transferred to printable fabric and placed in this block inside a crystal ball, which represents Alice's ability to see the future. The crystal ball pattern was designed by Jennifer Ofenstein and the block was pieced by former member, Shannon.

Stephenie Meyer Quilt: Carlisle & Esme

The walls, the high-beamed ceiling, the wooden floors, and the thick carpets were all varying shades of white.
Twilight, pg. 322

The long hall at the top of the stairs was paneled with a honey-colored wood, the same as the floorboards.
Twilight, pg. 329

I deliberated for a moment, then left the room, crossing the hall to Carlisle and Esme's suite.  As usual, Esme's desk was stacked with plans and blueprints, everything neatly laid out in tall piles. 
Breaking Dawn, pg. 672

It seemed obvious to me that the best symbols to portray Carlisle and Esme would be related to their interests.  He’s a doctor; she loves restoring old homes.  I can picture Esme pouring over a blueprint, but as soon as Carlisle comes home, he goes straight up to their suite, places his doctor’s bag and stethoscope on the table, then greets her with a kiss.  She stops her work and then they go curl up together on a sofa to chat about their day, or perhaps go for a walk along the river.

So I decided to make Esme a wood drafting table.  On it I’ve placed blueprints for Bella and Edward’s cottage, wood, stone and tile samples, plus a shopping list of supplies for building it.  At the bottom of the list Alice has added on her priorities.

The Cullen house is all wood and light creamy tones.  I started with the floor because I knew I had the perfect honey-colored wood planks fabric in my stash.  I carefully fussy cut it to piece it so that it was at an angle to match the perspective of the table.  For the walls, I picked a tone on tone off-white scroll patterned “wallpaper”.  To me it looked classic and like something Esme would have decorated with.  For the table I adapted the “Hardback Book” pattern from Jennifer Ofenstein at Sewhooked, adding legs on the bottom.  I used - and added to -  the divisions on the cover of her pattern to separate a piece of blue fabric with white lines to represent a blueprint, a gray fabric with circles and dots on it to represent landscaping plans, and several architectural type patterned fabrics for the wood, stone and tile.  The list I typed up in Word, in very small fonts, then printed it on Printed Treasures printable fabric.  I asked my husband, who is a better artist than I am, to draw a doctor’s bag and stethoscope for me.  The stethoscope I stitched directly on the table background, the bag I cut out and appliquéd on.

What I really enjoyed about creating this block was using all the neat wood/stone fabrics I’d been collecting for a while and also imagining Esme and Carlisle in a domestic setting.  No threats to their family, no visitors, just a normal day of working/projects, then some quality time together.

Lunch with Friends

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. –Douglas Pagels

Twilight and quilting began our association. In the beginning, they were the only things we had in common. We live scattered across the United States and Cat lives on the other side of the world, in Australia. But as we've worked together long-distance on half-a-dozen quilts, we've become friends. This is the most important part of our group and the foundation for our success.

Both Wanda and Iris came to Utah to see the Stephenie Meyer quilt. We visited the quilt while it was displayed at a quilt show, enjoyed lunch together and then did a little shop hopping. It was a really fun time. A few months ago, Wanda, her husband, and their youngest daughter with her husband and their daughter came to Utah again. We enjoyed lunch together and just had a wonderful time visiting and talking about quilting and families and life.

When I decided to attend my cousin's wedding in California last weekend, I was hoping that I might have a chance to meet up with the girls who live there. Iris, Wanda and Jerri Lynn live relatively close to each other, so I texted to find out how close they are to where I was going. As it turned out, Wanda is really close to where the wedding was held and she offered to let me stay with her while I was in town. Not only that, she took me to every place I needed to go. She and her wonderful husband were such gracious hosts and I am so happy that Twilight brought our paths together.

The day after the wedding, Iris drove to the mid-point between her house and Wanda's and we had lunch together. Unfortunately, Jerri Lynn had other plans for the weekend. We had a great time catching up with each other and all the great things that are going on in our lives. There was a little gift exchange and I came away with an Alice doll {thank you, Iris!}.

I had such a fun time that I'm hoping to go back again soon, for a little sewing weekend. We always have a great time when we get together.

Breaking Dawn Charity Quilt: Bella's Shield

I saw Jane smile as Edward crossed the midpoiunt in the distance between us, when he was closer to them than he was to us.

That smug little smile did it. My fury peaked, higher even than the raging bloodlust I'd felt the moment the wolves had committed to this doomed fight. I could taste madness on my tongue—I felt it flow through me like a tidal wave of pure power. My muscles tightened, and I acted automatically. I threw my shield with all the force in my mind, flung it across the impossible expanse of the field—ten times my best distance—like a javelin. My breath rushed out in a huff with the exertion.

The shield blew out from me in a bubble of sheer energy, a mushroom cloud of liquid steel. It pulsed like a living thing—I could feel it, from the apex to the edges.

There was no recoil to the elastic fabric now; in that instant of raw force, I saw that the backlash I'd felt before was of my own making—I had been clinging to that invisible part of me in self-defense, subconsciously unwilling to let it got. Now I set it free, and my shield exploded a good fifty yards out from me effortlessly, taking only a fraction of my concentration. I could feel it flex like just another muscle, obedient to my will. I pushed it, shaped it to a long, pointed oval. Everything underneath the flexible iron shield was suddenly a part of me—I could feel the life force of everything it covered like points of bright heat, dazzling sparks of light surrounding me. I thrust the shield forward the length of the clearing, and exhaled in relief when I felt Edward's brilliant light within my protection. I held there, contracting this new muscle so that it closely surrounded Edward, a thin but unbreakable sheet between his body and our enemies.
–Bella Cullen, Breaking Dawn, page 690-691

Pattern by Cat, design and piecing by Iris

I'll start off right off the bat saying that I had a hard time translating my idea for Bella's Shield into a fabric block. As soon as I saw that topic on our brainstorm list, I knew I wanted to use Cat's Swiss Shield pattern (without the cross in the middle) and I wanted to use an organza overlay on the shield with bright dots underneath to show the "bright points of light" that represented her friends and family under the shield.

Several obstacles arose.

First, finding the right fabric. I had a piece of the Kaufman Stargazers in Midnight which had some elements I thought would be really good: a swirl pattern to mimic her description of Alec's numbing "gift" hitting her shield; and golden starbursts that fit the "bright points of light" in her description. But since the confrontation is during a snowy day, I wanted something in whites/grays or blues. It took a couple hours of googles but I finally found the Stargazers fabric in Sky, which fit my idea.

I went to print out the pattern, enlarged, and my brain didn't work right and I printed it a bit bigger than I really would have liked. I didn't realize this until after I pieced it. So as a result you can't even see the cool snowflake pattern on the top half of the block. I tried out the organza idea, but even using the really thin printable sheets, you lost the whole pattern with the starbursts & swirls.

I wanted to show "the confrontation", with her friends and family in the shield portion and the Volturi & Nomads around them, and was originally thinking about using fabric markers or embroidery. Angie made a great suggestion to use beads, which I thought would add interest to an otherwise simple block. I used topaz colored ones for her family, placing them mostly in 2's (all the mates) with a grouping at the front to show Bella, Edward, Carlisle and Renesmee. Yeah, I know she has brown eyes, but I got some matte brown beads (which turned out to be brownish/purple) for the wolves. So I made a unified line of those in back of the main Cullen group and had one in front for Jacob. I added a few red ones in the shield for the other Covens. The Volturi "enemies" are lined up outside, with a few Nomad couples behind them. I clustered 3 reds together in the front for Aro, Caius, Marcus, but also added a fourth bead for Renata, and a topaz bead for Katrina. ;)

So, if I had absolute unlimited time, like let's say I was a vampire that didn't need to sleep, or I was just that OCD, I would probably re-make this block just to size down the shield and show more background. However, because I have a wonderfully busy life outside of Twilight, and I still think it came out neat, and I had alot of fun with the beads, it is what it is.

Eclipse Charity Quilt: Thanks for all the support

The Eclipse Give-to-Win is officially closed.  We'd like to thank everyone who has shown interest in our work and everyone who has donated.  We are proud of everyone involved in this project.  Together we raised $1729 for ALSF!!!  Stay tuned, the lucky winner will be announced August 10th. 

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Eclipse Charity Quilt: The Finishing Touches

Ok, my last post was a huge essay....so I'm going to keep this one short and SWEET!  Here are the pretty pictures of the finished quilt, so you can see all the yummy quilting Angie did on it !

I took these photos outside with the morning sun at an angle, hoping to get that quilting to show up.  It was done with invisible thread, also called monofilament thread, so that it wouldn't interfere with the designs.  Not sure what brand Angie used, we'll have to do a post exploring the do's and don'ts of invisible thread sometime in the future .

It's a shame the camera still doesn't capture the full sparklingness of this quilt.  All the shimmery Fairy Frosts, rhinestones and beads, and thanks to that invisible thread, all the quilting sparkles in the sun! Mouse over the lower right corner for the controls to stop the slide show for a better look at the pictures.

Iris
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Eclipse Charity Quilt: It's All in the Details

The most difficult aspect of this quilt was the ribbon. How can you mimic the Eclipse book cover ribbon with fabric? One that is interrupted by 20 blocks? The easiest way would have been to put the blocks together with sashing, mark up where the outline of the ribbon needed to go, cut out pieces from one color of red, and fuse them on. But then you get an outline of a ribbon, with no depth and the ribbon pieces really wouldn't form a coherent unified piece. Plus it would look like a tacky afterthought, even if it were stitched along the edges. I wanted the ribbon to look like part of the background, not slapped on top.

To achieve the look I was going for, I would need multiple shades of red in order to show that it is flowing and folding around, with lighter and darker areas. I started out by opening an image of the Eclipse book cover in Photoshop. I tried my hand with the pen tool, outlining the ribbon shape, but that still looked blocky. I then tried the magic wand tool, trying to select just certain color sections, but there are too many shades of the color in a high def image to easily select distinct sections.

And then the Photoshop Guru (my husband) gave me a tip that was an "aha" moment. He took one look at what I was doing one evening as we were watching TV on the couch together (I rarely watch TV without doing something else at the same time) and calmly said, "just Posterize it". I stared glassy eyed at him till he told me what it meant, we looked to see if my "inferior" Photoshop Elements version had it (so far it's been able to do everything that the super expensive CS version does), and we tried it out.

I tried to find an official definition/ tutorial on what it does, but everything out there sounds too complicated or tells you how to use it for other things. And I'm not going to make this post a Photoshop tutorial, it's going to be long enough already. Basically it takes your high quality image and reduces the number of different tones in your image. It makes it look more cartoon-like. So I went from the image on top, with who knows how many tones of red....to the image on the bottom, in which I specified I only wanted 4 tones. Three tones was too simple, didn't provide the depth I was looking for, and I didn't want to look for more than 4 different fabrics to use!

So then I went shopping! For Fairy Frost! Online at our favorite place to shop for FF, Mary Jo's, of course (the shops around here don't carry more than one or two colors). At first I tried doing this combination of reds: a mottled red batik (for the shadow – don't know what it's called) with Scarlet, Blood, and Pomegranate Fairy Frosts.

As you can see there just isn't enough contrast. There is no definition between the 3 Fairy Frosts. I went looking around again, searching locally and online, and even considered just dying some of the Snow (white) FF I had, but finally found a lighter pink color called Lipstick at Fat Quarter Shop. I cringed at the pinkness of it, but one thing I have found over the years is that I tend to not use enough contrast and things look washed out. So I rearranged colors and came up with a new quadruple: the mottled red batik with Scarlett, Pomegranate, and Lipstick Fairy Frosts.

The next challenge was piecing it into the background. At first I thought I would piece it with rectangle and half-square triangles into a "rough" ribbon. I even drafted it up that way in my design (see the second picture above). The fact that it wouldn't be a solid background, but would be in the sashing between 20 blocks and 20 quotes was an obstacle. There was no way around the fact that I would be making things more complicated needing to piece around the blocks and quotes. I couldn't think of how to piece it easily, but I did find a wonderful technique for piecing curves. Fiber artist Dale Fleming has a technique called "Pieced Curves So Simple" and I looked at this tutorial on HGTV to figure it out. I'd previously done regular piecing and paper piecing but this is a whole new method, and it was actually super easy. The curves come together nicely, it was the piecing between all the blocks and quotes that had me yanking hair out!

Here is a quick overview of how the curvy parts worked: I drafted up my design to scale in Photoshop, meaning the quilt was to be 58" x 62", and my design canvas size was 58" x 62". It made for a slow file to work with, but I didn't want to deal with scaling. I had the grid showing on the file and I went through and methodically printed a paper template for each 8" x 10" section that had ribbon on it. I pinned the templates on my design wall behind the prepped blocks and sections of black/grey background fabric sashing. (And if anyone knows a quicker way than manually hitting "print" and giving it the coordinates each time, let me know!) You can see that the ribbon is made up of paper.

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking ahead and did not take photos of the process, but I'll try to describe it as well as I can and include the couple of photos I have. For each section, I cut the separate template colors apart. I used the templates to cut each corresponding fabric, with a roughly 1/2" seam allowance. Then along the inner curve I clipped the seam allowance and folded it over the paper. Using a washable fabric glue stick I lightly tacked down the seam allowance to the back of the paper template. I then lightly ironed it so that it had a crisp edge. I placed the "outer color" (which has the paper template attached) on top of the "inner" color and tacked down just that seam allowance to the bottom color (you can see in this first photo that I've re-taped the two darker reds, cut the shape of the pink and already folded it over the paper template and tacked down to the reds).

Then I peeled off the top "outer color" from it's paper backing to get to the crisp folded edge, and sewed along that seam (in the 2nd photo). Then I removed the paper backing all together, and ironed to smooth it out. I basically "built up" each section this way.

It may sound complicated, and unfortunately I don't have a "tutorial" of my own photos, but it actually is no harder than paper piecing. You just have the extra steps of cutting your pieces into a curves, clipping the seam allowances, and gluing the fabric around the edge of the paper before sewing them together.

This fourth picture shows a clipped edge already sewn onto the reds/pink with the paper removed.

To re-cap the process: I started with an image of the ribbon, I made it into a "cartoon" with only four shades of color . . . and this is the end result:

Eclipse Charity Quilt: The beginnings

As we come upon the last two weeks of our Donate to Win fundraiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand, I thought it would be fun to share with everyone some more details about this one of a kind quilt and how it came about.  If you've been reading our blog for some time you'll know that we all met just last winter/spring and in just one year we've been busy with several group projects, all through online and mail collaboration.  The first big one was the quilt we gifted Stephenie Meyer (spring/summer '09) and then our first for charity project, the New Moon Quilt (fall '09).  In February we started planning our third "big" project, also for charity and on our TwilightMOMs Eclipse Charity Quilt thread we opened a call for designs.   Eclipse is my favorite of the "published" books in the Saga, and immediately I felt inspired to make a design for the quilt.  I had seen a small wall hanging quilt in a magazine that looked nothing like I wanted, but had the suggestion of a ribbon running around blocks and felt that a ribbon had to be incorporated somehow.

My first attempt looked like this--------------------------------->
But I wasn't satisfied with how blocky it was, and no matter how much I played with the "ribbon", made up of rectangle and half square triangle pieces, I couldn't get it to look right.
But having everything revolving around a central Eclipse was something that I liked.


In the previous two quilts, it frustrated me that we had to narrow down to only a couple of quotes.  But this done for good reasons: one they were embroidered, so they had to be big enough to be feasible; and two the blocks were the star of the show.   But I love Stephenie's characters and so much of what they say.  If I could, I'd have the whole Saga quoted on my walls!  Recently I've been experimenting with printing on fabric, both the "printable fabric" you can buy, and making my own, and I thought this would be a great way to incorporate more quotes since they can be smaller and still be legible.

<----I have an Edward Cullen fan-made calendar that has this page I really like.   As a scrapbooker, having the scenes shown as labeled "polaroids"  seems so fun to me.  And it's a way to incorporate those quotes I so desperately love.

So I thought, why not make the whole quilt look like a scrapbook page: the Eclipse book cover as the "background"; the appliqued Eclipse as an "embellishment"; the blocks as the "photos"; and the pertinent quotes as the "journaling".  Here was attempt#2 -------------------->

They were the only designs submitted by our deadline and we put them up for vote.   Someone suggested changing the polaroid effect for a framed photo with a separate jouraling tag under each, which has a much cleaner, sophisticated look.  And thus the design evolved to this (with temporary "sample" blocks):

Check back tomorrow to see how the ribbon evolved from something blocky to the flowy ribbon on the Eclipse cover.
(and for some good Photoshop tips!)

Iris

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Eclipse Charity Quilt: Under Construction

Iris designed the layout for our Eclipse quilt. She's kept us updated as construction of the top progressed.

As she received the blocks, she added a sashing of Fairy Frost in Snow around each.

Each block will have a quote from the book to accompany it. Iris printed out the quotes in each character's font (as used in the books) on Snow Fairy Frost and treated them so that the printing would stay permanently on the fabric.

Then she put the blocks with their sashing and quotes up on her design wall.

Stay tuned for more updates on the quilt in progress.

Eclipse Charity Quilt: I Can't Fight With An Eclipse

Eclipse by Iris

The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse. –Jacob Black, Eclipse, page 600

Block design and assembly by Iris.

Vampire Instructions

Shared by Iris.

TQC Exchange: Iris got some love from Elizabeth

From Iris on January 17:

Coming at a great time to cheer me up from a "down" weekend, this afternoon I opened the mail to find a surprise from my secret exchange buddy! It's a 5" x 7" matte print of this beautiful sketch of Robert Pattinson by Noel Cruz. Thanks secret buddy! I heart you. I'll update this post when I find out who sent it!

Update: Elizabeth was my xchange buddy! Look at the beautiful "Abbey Bag" pincushion/scrap bag she made me! She'd sent me the pattern but let's face it I was never going to get around to making it! This is perfect! And a selection of green fabrics. She knows I love green! Also the little rascal sent along a frame for that gorgeous print of the Robert Pattinson sketch! I had been thinking about getting a large frame and putting a printout of the original photo next to the sketch....now I have a better idea since I already got a frame, I'll just print out the original small and put it on the lower right corner! I heart you Elizabeth! Thanks for the great goodies!

TQC Exchange: Joyce's Gift from Iris

From Joyce on January 19:

I got a package today!!!!!!!! Iris, Thank you so much!!!! She sent some Steam-a-Seam 2, a white disappearing ink pen (which I actually desperately needed), a sweet note, and Twilight Candleholders and candles. She used each book cover and a fun quote to decorate the votive holders, and each candle scent represents something TS related (Edward, Bella, Forks, and Isle Esme). It's too bad we don't have scratch and sniff posts! They smell delicious!