Star Wars Quilts: Episode 1

A while back I wanted to use up some of my blue fabric from my fabric stash since the drawer was overflowing.  My son had recently asked for a Star Wars quilt, so I decided to take care of both challenges at the same time.

Fast forward to the fall of that year, and I am participating in a rather large craft fair – one of the largest I’d done.  I find out my booth is on the corner, and I panic because I simply can’t have the side of my booth be the backs of the quilts hanging up on the inside.  I needed something to hang on the outside of the booth, but I’d sold a couple of quilts on Etsy that would have done the job.  I ran upstairs and asked my little buddy if I could borrow his Star Wars quilt for the show.  He’s such a good sport and didn’t hesitate to agree.  I placed it on the outside, and the visibility was excellent.

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The original Star Wars quilt hanging outside my booth at a craft fair.

When I placed his quilt up, I expected it to gain some attention, but I wasn’t prepared for how much attention it would garner.  My booth neighbor behind me said that everyone who passed by her booth was talking about the Star Wars quilt.  I had several people ask about what it would cost to make one for them since I had a “Not for Sale” tag on my son’s.  I joked that if he wasn’t in charge of my end-of-life decisions I could have sold that quilt three times that day.  So it seemed a no-brainer that I would make one to sell after that show.

It didn’t hurt that I still had a lot of blue fabric left over from previous projects, gifted to me, or rescued from remnant bins.  The first thing I did was to get out all the blue fabric I intended on using and placed it in the order I wanted.

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All the blue fabric I intended on using.

After that, I cut them all into 3.5″ strips.

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From there, I sewed the strips end-to-end and rolled them up on an empty tissue holder.  The final radius of that roll was 4.25″.

There’s not much new in the quilting world in regards to techniques, but I *might* be the first person I know of to use what I call the “chair technique”.  I had my husband video the beginning of the process.

From here, I sewed together the strips into pairs so as to make organizing easier.

It was here I realized I had much more than the original twin-size quilt goal.  In fact, I had exactly enough strips cut to make TWO twin-sized quilts. I laid everything out and then picked up every other strip segment; this helped in that my strips were still going in order from lightest to darkest, allowing the silhouettes to be mostly in the lighter fabric.

I decided that I would make one with the original Luke and Darth Vader silhouettes like I had for my son, but the second one would be linked to the newest film and feature Rey and Kylo Ren.

Stayed tuned tomorrow for Episode 2.

Related posts and blogs:

Katy Quilts: Finish it Up Thursday

Aby Quilts: Star Wars Quilt Finished!

Legacy of a Last Jedi

Stadium Quilts

I know I mentioned “stadium quilts” in a previous post, so I figured I’d go ahead and discuss them.  As said before, the whole idea of a stadium quilt is that it is usually in school colors and is 4’x4′.  This isn’t the usual size of a lap quilt, but the logic was that at 4’x4′ it would be big enough to cover your lap while sitting on those wonderfully comfortable bleachers at football games while also being small enough not to drag around or have folks stepping on them.  Of course, they also happen to be the perfect size for draping over the back of a couch or chair.

I happen to work for a particularly large school system that has over 20 different high schools.  (This still baffles me as I graduated from an area with one high school for the whole darn county!)  That being said, I figured that if I stuck to the basic colors of the local schools I’d happen to catch most professional and college team colors as well.  One thing I know for sure – you Buckeye fans sure do love your Etsy stores.  I probably get more hits on my Etsy store from Buckeye fans than from any other team.

When I decided to make the stadium quilt, I had two goals in mind.  1. Make some smaller quilts to sell ready-made on Etsy as well as at craft shows.  My original lot was around 14 or so.  2. Use up as much of my fabric stash as I could without buying any more except for backing.  I’ve mostly stuck to this, but I haven’t been able to resist the occasional gold or gray since they’re so wonderfully useful.  I’ve also taken to strolling by the remnant bin at JoAnn’s and seeing if there’s any generic quilting fabric that is handy.  The remnant bin and I are now officially old friends.

I also took some time and experimented with a new design – the “split rail,” aka the “rail fence.” I really liked it and had fun using it more.  I also experimented using both cotton backing and flannel.  After all, if the idea was to stay warm during games, then flannel was the way to go.  In addition to my newfound appreciation for flannel, I also found that I simply LOVE crepe back satin.  I used it in a couple of quilts and like the texture and sheen of it.

One color combo I was surprised looked as good as it did was the orange and blue.  For the back of it, I found an orange and white tie-dye style flannel, and it looked great!  I do think the rail fence styles look prettier overall.

 

Related Posts – mostly about using up your fabric stash:

Tierney Creates

Katy Quilts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current projects…

My current situation is strange – much stranger than usual. I have a crafting weekend at the end of March, and last time I spent too much time cutting and not sewing. So this time I plan on mostly sewing. To get a head start, I’ve been making “kits” of precut fabric all ready to assemble. I’m up to 14 kits in various stages of readiness.

Last year I made around 14 4’x4′ quilts I called “stadium quilts”. The idea was that they were all in local school colors and could be used at games. They were big enough to cover a lap but small enough not to drag on the stadium steps. I’ve sold all those, so I plan on making more as well as some traditional lap quilt sizes. I’ve been having fun and trying to use up a fair amount of my stash to boot!

I think the kits are definitely the way to go.  I have already “broken in to” a couple of them.  

Related blog posts:

https://dottiedoodle.blog/2017/12/31/the-splendid-sampler-lap-quilt/

https://claire93.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/finishing-off-my-finishes-january/

Welcome!

Hi everyone and welcome!  This blog is the partner of my Facebook business page: www.facebook.com/questquilts.  Here I plan on discussing my favorite hobby, quilting, and all the facets of it that make it such a beautiful art form.  I’ll also document projects and such as I explore new methods and create designs.

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A rainbow bargello quilt I made a while back and couldn’t resist taking a picture of it in the snow.
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