New Moon Quilt: The Flight Home

I believe some of this was posted previously but lost in the unfortunate incident we had in Oct. Anyway, here is The Flight Home block I created for the New Moon quilt. I started with the La Push: First Beach block designed by our wonderful Cat Magraith and avaliable at sewhooked.org under guest designers. Cat, thank you for bringing a little bit of magic into my life with all these fantastic PP patterns! And thank you Jennifer for your great website chock full of PP goodies!!!

Then I found this cute Airplane pattern available at Paper Panache. I actually have a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and while it's true what they say, use it or loose it....I still get a thrill at seeing airplanes, so this one was a fun piecing! I loaded it up with 3 shades of gray/white, all sparkly since it's still high up in the air where the sun could be hitting it above the cloud cover!

I used 3 different tree patterns: The Carlson Pine from Forest Quilting is the tall guy. I just extended the trunk a bit. The two medium bushier trees come from a book I have, "Paper Piecing the Seasons" by Liz Schwartz. It's one of those books that was a gift 10 years ago and I'm not crazy about much in it, but it surprisingly has turned up a couple of good nuggets! The smallest tree was a share by Angie, I believe. It is from 365 Foundation Quilt Blocks by Linda Causee.

Then it was on to the signs. My vision when I signed up for this block was always to have an airplane coming down between La Push and Forks, to show Bella being caught in the middle of her "two good things". But originally I wanted the two signs to be right next to each other under the plane. Well, after I pieced the tall tree I realized I wanted to make it taller, so I just added to the trunk. But then that looked bad, so I decided that I'd relocate the Forks signs to cover it up, and also I didn't really want to cover up half of the smaller tree! I grabbed photos of the two signs from online, resized them, and raw edge, machine stitch appliqued them on. Not crazy about how the Forks sign turned out (I really wanted to use that green star fabric, because it reminds me of Charlie, but overall just not happy with fabric choices), but really like my La Push one. Although the tree behind it bugs me, came out crooked. :(


One last note. The whole thing was a mish-mash of components to begin with, and then I ran into a little problem after I'd completed La Push, the airplane and two trees. I realized I was running out of sky fabric, quick! I didn't want to re-do everything, so my solution was more mish-mash! I actually took apart one of the trees to salvage some of the sky, used a grayer batik to make the right third look like a storm was coming in from the east, and frugally finished piecing the rest. I even dug into my trash for scraps I'd previously thrown away just to crazy piece some of the sections under the airplane! I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to join up La Push with the rest of it! I guess that quote is true, "when life throws you scraps, make a quilt" ! =)

New Moon Quilt: Finished

On August 4, 2009 the Twilight Quilters Coven announced that we would be making a New Moon themed quilt to be auctioned off at the Utah New Moon Movie Premiere Event in Salt Lake City, with all proceeds going to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. For a while, it looked a bit dicey, but we've made it to the finish line and have a lovely quilt that we hope will bring a nice donation for ALSF.

The quilt arrived safely in Utah today and is currently in the possession of one of the members of the charity committee on the Events by Alice team. The charity portion of the Utah New Moon Event will be spotlighted tomorrow, November 17, 2009 on Good Things Utah, a local morning TV show. It will then be returned to Elizabeth for a few finishing details, including a hanging sleeve and a label for the back of the quilt.

The silent auction (on-line bidding was available) will begin on Thursday, November 19th at 3:00 pm and end at 7:00 pm on Friday, November 20th.

Click on the picture of the quilt for a bigger view. You can read more about the construction of the quilt and see close-ups of each of the blocks by clicking on the links below:

Our discussion thread on TwilightMOMS
The Quilt Layout

Quotes

Bella's Birthday Cake

Japanese Lanterns

Bella's Silver Gifts

Bella's Paper Cut

As if I'd Never Existed

Months Passing Without Notice

Jacob's Sun

Bella's Broken and Mended Heart

Bella & Jacob's Motorcycles

Conversation Hearts

Bella, Jacob and Mike Newton Go to the Movies

Dangerous Meadow

The Wolf Pack

Cliff Diving

The Phone Call

Grand Theft Auto

The Volturi

La Tua Cantante

The Flight Home

The Meteor

The Vote

The Proposal

The Quilt Top in Progress

On the Quilt Table

Machine Quilting in Progress

More Machine Quilting

Less is More

Getting Closer

A Few More Finished

Machine Quilting Finished

Charity Auction

New Moon Quilt: Machine Quilting Finished

Angie finished the machine quilting and sewed the binding on the quilt on Friday and sent it to Elizabeth via Priority Mail. It is due to arrive tomorrow. Elizabeth will turn the binding and stitch it down on the back. The quilt will hopefully be featured on Good Things Utah, along with Lisa Hansen, TwilightMOMS creator, as a final bit of publicity before the big Utah New Moon Movie Premier Event in Salt Lake City. The quilt will be auctioned off at the event, via silent auction (on-line bidding available) and all the proceeds will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, the official TwilightMOMS charity.

Angie posted the last couple of completed blocks before she send the quilt off. Here they are:

Iris' spectacular Bella's Birthday Cake block with beautiful roses quilted into the background.

Iris' As if I'd Never Existed block. This is the largest block in the quilt and so it is difficult to get a good picture or the entire thing at once. Angie quilted in some amazing details, like siding into the house and a pretty design in the grass.


Jerri Lynn's Vote block, with accent stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.


Joyce's Dangerous Meadow is combined with Elizabeth's Wolf Pack to create a complete block.

New Moon Quilt: A Few More Finished

Angie has nearly all the blocks quilted. Here are a few more that she's finished.

Mel's Volturi block with stitching to compliment the swirls at the bottom of the block.


Cat's Grand Theft Auto block with stitch-in-the-ditch accents, clouds in the sky, swirls in the tire and a sort-of crosshatch pattern on the road.

Mel's La Tua Cantante block with a staff quilted in across the pattern of the block.

New Moon Quilt: Getting Closer

Angie is keeping us well updated with her progress in getting the quilt finished. Her update this afternoon was, I think I only have the cake and paws left to do. Then the sashing.

Here are the latest blocks she's finished. This is the last page of Joyce's Calendar block, the only part of it that is attached on all four sides and needs quilting. The October, November and December pages flip up, adding a great 3-D effect to the quilt. Angie quilted in some beautiful snowflakes to accent this page.

Elizabeth's Proposal block. Angie quilted in a swirl pattern than mimics the black background fabric in this block. It is difficult to get a good photograph of the black fabric, so there is a sample of it under the block. This is the same black fabric that was used in the Stephenie Meyer quilt.


Elizabeth's Jacob's Sun block with rays quilted in.


Angie's Meteor block with an amazing star pattern quilted in.

New Moon Quilt: Less is More

I didn't think it was possible, but Angie has outdone herself, yet again! Here are the most recent blocks she's finished quilting, with a word from her on each one.

Iris' Flight Home block

I have been avoiding doing Iris's blocks....they are just so great and detailed. I was afraid I was going to do something to mess that up or take away from it or something. So I dediced less was more. I just highligted the trees and clouds. I am kind of taking the same approach on the 'As if I Never Existed' block.

Joyce's Broken and Mended Heart

I wanted to keep the colors from the ribbons and just accent.

Elizabeth's Motorcycles block

Again...less is more on this one too...there is such amazing embroidery on this one, I wanted that to be what you see. So I accented the trees and the large tires on the bikes. I may do alittle more if time permits.

New Moon Quilt: More Machine Quilting

After a long day at the machine, Angie wows us again with more quilted blocks! The details she adds as she quilts accent the blocks and make the quilt even more amazing.

Angie's Phone Call block with stippling throughout the phone.


Wanda's Japanese Lanterns block with a hearts and ribbons pattern.


Angie's Cliff Diving block with weather, land and water details quilted in.


Wanda's Birthday Gifts block accented with stitched circles.


Here is the quilt after it has been rolled on the quilting table. The soft and furry minkee backing fabric is visible along length of the quilt as it has been rolled over, pulling the center of quilt to an area of table where Angie can work on it.

New Moon Quilt: Machine Quilting in Progress

Angie has given us a little peek at the progress she's making on the quilt. She's got three blocks quilted and a bit of the border started. Here is Cat's Paper Cut block with an amazing scallop design quilted around the edges.


This is Jerri Lynn's Conversation Hearts block, quilted with an all-over heart design.


Elizabeth's Movie Theater block with accent in-the-ditch stitching.


And here's a look at the border in progress, quilted with wolf paws!

New Moon Quilt: On the Table

Angie is keeping us updated on the quilt: it is loaded on the table....now just trying to figure this out. What to do, what to do??? I am using a brown bottom line on the fur side. But that is as far as I have gotten with thread selection.... We're all excited with the news that the quilting is about to commence. And we're excited to reveal this fun detail too . . . the back is furry! Angie picked out a great piece of brown minkee swirl that will look amazing when quilted and feels so soft when you wrap yourself up in it. With all the wolves in New Moon, we thought it only fitting.

New Moon Quilt: The Quilt Top in Progress

Angie, our assembler/quilter extraordinaire has received all the quilt blocks and is busy getting them put together while juggling kids, her personal quilt business and life. She hopes to have it completely assembled and ready to quilt tomorrow afternoon. And she promises to keep us updated with photos. It is so fun to see all this hard work come together in a tangible way. We've all quilted our little hearts into our blocks and it is really exciting to see them as part of the whole.

I also wanted to re-cap the destiny of this wonderful quilt. Our group announced on August 4, 2009 that we would be making a New Moon themed quilt to be auctioned off at the Utah New Moon Experience in conjunction with the New Moon movie release. Time and materials would be donated by each participant and the entire amount the quilt receives at the silent auction will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, the official TwilightMOMS charity. With just over a week left until our deadline, it looks like our quilt will be finished just in time. Each member of the group has put forth an amazing effort to produce this one-of-a-kind piece of Twilight memorabilia. To quote TQC member, Joyce, "I hope you like the blocks - and potential buyers . . . bid high and bid often!!!!!"

New Moon Quilt: It will be as if I'd never existed.

As if I'd Never Existed by Iris

"It will be as if I'd never existed."
Those were the words that stopped my heart cold and sent me into a two week depression the first time I encountered them. I was in such denial for most of New Moon (the whole day it took to read), seriously thought it would only be a day or two then he would be back....a part of me is still shocked each time I read New Moon.


This was not originally my block to complete, nor was it my original idea to use the elements I used, but I'm happy with the results and tried to put my own touches on it.

I Started with the Silver Linings pattern shown here. The skill level is "challenging". Well, that it is! Especially since I didn't follow it exactly because I wanted to show that progression of time from when Edward leaves to when Sam finds Bella. The pattern itself, 10" x 16", came printed on velum. There are 8 subsections that need to be completed first, then each regular section A thru U. Planning ahead was challenging, with those subsections, trying to figure out where to place the lighter grays/greens, then where to start the medium tones, to finally end with a section of blacks.

For the left half, I took a picture of Bella's house used in the movie, printed it out roughly the size that would fit on that space, then just drew the lines directly on the printout.

Miraculously it ended up dividing nicely, with standard sized pieces (no weird eighth's to contend with). I was really happy to find a few fabrics in my stash that I thought were perfect for her house, the green with stars for the stairs and gray with lines and stars for the downstairs curtains (I think of depicting Charlie with stars, for obvious reasons), the roof tile fabric, and the white on cream fabric that I used for the "yellowed lace" curtains of Bella's room. At first I made her house section with just the gray sky but side by side it didn't meld well together, so I took scraps left over from the woods and just fudged on some more trees/leaves bracketing the house. Then I tried to make the ground under the house match up the woods part.


For the wolf I took this aqua wolf magnet that my neighbor (closet Twifan) had brought me from New Mexico and just traced it on solid black fabric. I don't care for the magnet itself, but it sure came in handy for this project! For Bella's truck I printed out the picture from Stephenie Meyer's website (inverted), stuck it on the back of the Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 (my adhesive of choice as you all know) and just cut the pieces out. I was in such a hurry when zig-zag stitching the appliques by machine that I forgot to use stabilizer. But it only puckered up the wolf section slightly, which was a section with lots of seams from the piecing. I also lost the "perfect" headlight buttons I pulled out from my stash two seconds after I'd pulled them out (not an uncommon occurrence for me!), spent a frantic couple minutes looking for them but had to finally put on other buttons or else I wouldn't make it to UPS on time.

For the quote I was concerned about two things, stiffness of printable fabric and not being able to print white/cream letters on an inkjet. My solutions, I used printable silk charmeuse sheet instead of cotton sheet, and I actually scanned my background, typed the text in white over the scanned photo, and printed that on the off white charmeuse. Then I suffered a moment of panic when I thought to help "set it" with bubblejet rinse, and all the ink started to run off! I quickly took it out of that solution and soaked it in Retayne for 20 min instead.

This was definitely the hardest design I've ever had to sew. And to do it in a very short time. And it was the hardest one to give up!

New Moon Quilt: Quotes

Machine Embroidered Book Quotes by Jerri Lynn

(above) Quote from Edward

(above) Quote from Bella

(above) Quote from Jacob

(above) Quote from Alice

New Moon Quilt: Conversation Hearts

Conversation Hearts by Jerri Lynn

New Moon Quilt: The Vote

The Vote by Jerri Lynn


Here is my vote block. I chose to make this the way I did for a couple of reasons. First of all, we get the whole story of Twilight from Bella's perspective. I always feel like we are reading her journal over her shoulder as she writes, so I tried to convey that with this block. I chose the quote on the left because that was so pivotal for Bella. That, at least to me, is when she finally sees herself as being important to Edward. Their relationship takes on more depth. It isn't just her "crushing on the cute, quiet guy," it's the two of them, loving one another. And then, of course, with this being the vote block I wanted to show the result of the vote. I thought about her jotting down the responses as she went around the table. (I also had to give Emmett a little more presence here, as he is one of my favorite characters!)

New Moon Quilt: Grand Theft Auto

Alice's Yellow Porsche by Cat

New Moon Quilt: Bella's Paper Cut

The Paper Cut by Cat

New Moon Quilt: The Volturi

The Volturi by Mel


This started out being only Jane. We figured it would be more representative to have all the Volturi! This block is my interpretation of the volturi, full-fledged. It started out as a hand drawing I made, and I did my best to transform it into fabric art. The Volturi are surrounded by smoke, cloaked in black. In the back, the clock is about the strike noon. The red sky represents their power and also the threat of death the Volturi represent. I used applique and reverse applique for everything. I used a satin stitch to embellish the smoke, and to embellish the clock tower. The Volturi were appliqued, and I also used a blanket stitch, again for embellishment.

New Moon Quilt: La Tua Cantante

La Tua Cantante by Mel


I got inspired by Bella's blood singing to Edward. I thought that it was a really beautiful metaphor. So that's exactly what I made: music! Since I play piano, this image is the first thing that popped into my head when I joined the group! I used paper piecing to form the background, and the key and notes were done using Heat Bond for applique. The red is supposed to represent Bella's blood. We added a quote around the block (done by JerriLynn) to make it clear what the block is supposed to represent.

New Moon Quilt: Japanese Lanterns

Japanese Lanterns by Wanda


Just a few little fused lanterns,with machine stitching to represent the "line of glowing Japanese lanterns hung from the porch eaves, reflecting a soft radiance on the huge cedars that surrounded the house" as Bella arrives for her birthday party. I thought of piecing my own lanterns (actually made an attempt, getting as far as cutting) but I just couldn't help using these as they were just so cute and just the right size! And really that is how I imagined them anyway.

New Moon Quilt: Bella's Gifts

Bella's Gifts by Wanda


I fussy cut the first gift so as to create a moon in the middle of the gift. I orginally selected this particular fabric because it seemed to be similar to a present that Alice was holding in an official New Moon photo. I hand appliqued the squares for the packages and fused and stitched the ribbons. My background fabric is also symbolic of moons with the circular design. My roses are cut from another fabric and fused and machine stitched. And even though there are only two they represent the "hundreds of roses" used to decorate for Bella's birthday. They also balance the "small pile of silver wrapped gifts." And yes, the ribbon bows are washable!