lightsaber – Quest Quilts

Darth Vader quilt

Christmas is here, and I can finally make a post about one quilt in particular. I couldn’t make a peep about it anywhere on any of my social media outlets because the friend it was for was privy to all of them.

While visiting over the summer, a friend joked after seeing my other Star Wars silhouette quilts that I should make one with Darth Vader in the corridor – the scene in both Rogue One at the end and in Star Wars: A New Hope at the beginning. A little while later, his sweet bride sent me a picture, asking about getting it made into a twin-sized quilt in the style I’d done with the others.

Well I LOVED the idea of all that red fabric, and I liked how it turned out as a background pattern for sure. The silhouette was very simple, especially compared to the Rey and Kylo Ren quilt I’ve done a couple of times before. I stuck with my usual style of using crepe back satin for the light saber. I’ll forever love that fabric.

The biggest surprise with this quilt was it was my first time using wool batting. I’d heard of it before, but that was about it. And let’s face it – I live in Georgia. We don’t need wool blankets except for on a handful of days at best. I was surprised at how light it was. In fact, I halfway wondered if it wasn’t actually polyester. I did some research and tried out the “burn test” on a small patch. Sure enough, it burned and singed instead of melted, so it was the real deal.

I made the quilt and then got really scared at the idea of washing this thing. I have sinned against wool in the past, and I was nervous about repeating that mistake. I finally decided I would rather wash it and take my chances with me first before sending it off to my friends. So I washed it on the coldest, shortest, gentlest cycle my washing machine had to offer, and then I hung it out on my back deck to dry. I’m proud to say that there were no casualties in the making of this quilt – cotton, wool, or otherwise.

Star Wars Quilt

Rey and BB8 Wall Quilt

Luke’s Last Sunset Wall Quilt

Star Wars Quilts: Episode 4

This is the last episode to compliment episodes 1, 2, and 3. Thanks for sticking with me!

At this point, both the Luke and Darth Vader quilt and the Rey and Kylo Ren quilt were ready for my mid-arm quilting machine. On the original one I made, I had quilted a very close pattern because of the different fabrics I’d used. The quilt has a nice “hand” (the weight and how it hangs) and works wonderfully, so I decided to keep a good thing going.

You can see here the details and tight horizontal swirls pattern I used.

On the original quilt, my son chose the backing and picked a blue mottled stars and sky fabric. It looked awesome but was among the more expensive fabrics. For these, I went with a simple black to help tie together the silhouettes themselves to the overall look of the quilt. With so many blue variations, the black was needed. I also liked how you could see the impressions of the characters on the back.

Here are the final results.

I had originally wanted to wait and begin selling these at my next craft show, but I decided to go ahead and place them on Etsy.

So here is the link to the Luke and Darth Vader listing.

Here is the link to the Rey and Kylo Ren listing.

Star Wars Quilts: Episode 3

This post is a continuation of Episode 1 and Episode 2 – logically.

With Luke and Darth Vader taken care of, it was now time for Rey and Kylo Ren. They presented a unique challenge because, while there were lots of images from which to choose, I couldn’t find many that translated into a silhouette well. One would have a good profile, but the body wasn’t in a good position; another would be missing the feet but everything else was perfect. In the end, I picked a couple of pictures where everything was right except the head, and I imposed a different picture’s head onto it, adjusting for size, etc. I really wanted Rey’s specific hairdo included, and I did NOT want a silhouette of Kylo Ren’s hood up.

Just like the other one, I traced the images from a projector onto paper, and then I traced them again onto the Pellon 805 fusible interfacing.

These figures had a lot more detail than Luke and Darth Vader, and they took longer to cut out. Not to mention Kylo Ren’s interfacing did NOT want to peel off properly.

If you look carefully, you can see where I’ve used a lot of pins on Kylo Ren. I decided Kylo Ren in fabric form was just as aggravating as Kylo Ren in the cinema form. *But we all love and adore Adam Driver in this house!

After this, there’s lots of ironing and sewing with the zigzag stitch as I attached them to the blue strip background. Somewhere in here I added lightsabers and had a needle break on my sewing machine. A piece of it flew towards my eye, and I’m grateful for such trivial things as eyelids. Mine worked just as it ought and kept my actual eye from being hit. Yikes!

Almost there! Stay tuned tomorrow for the final episode.

Star Wars Quilts: Episode 2

This post is a continuation from yesterday’s.

After sewing all the strips together for two twin-sized quilts, I had to get to work on the silhouettes. The Luke and Darth Vader ones were easy because I still had the silhouettes from the original quilt.

The key to making these quilts is to use the 805 Pellon fusible web interfacing. I traced the images onto the interfacing, pinned them to the quilt, and then I ironed away.

It’s strange. When the 805 works like it’s supposed to and peels off properly, you get fabric with an entire side of glue that’s ready to be ironed onto another piece of fabric. For these, some of the spots worked correctly, but I had a lot of areas that simply didn’t want to cooperate. This is where I had to go back and pin again. The fusible interfacing to there to ensure everything stays put and doesn’t shift while being sewn down.

The next step was the cut out the figures.

I like to use gray for the lightsaber handle and satin for the lightsaber blades. I had considered several other options before settling on satin, including glow-in-the-dark fabric. But I couldn’t resist the sheen of the satin and liked how it “popped”. I ironed the lightsabers on right after the figures were situated.

I used the close-set zigzag stitch and my duel-feed foot to trace around my figures and make sure they were secure. After Luke and Darth Vader were ready, I moved on to my newer silhouettes: Rey and Kylo Ren.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Episode 3.

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