I was out yesterday doing some location scouting for the next 'quilt/lapse' production . . . yeah, this must be the place. But while I was there, I had the opportunity to play on a long arm sewing machine for the very first time EVER!
iWant!
I'm so hesitant and unsure of myself and my skills here. It's so new. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I've progressed on this a year from now! So many possibilities . . . .
Here we go! Again!!!
Meet Sailor Moon. She is a Japanese franchise character who is the inspiration for quilt #19. Sailor Moon chronicles the adventures of a schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino as she transforms into Sailor Moon to search for a magical artifact, the "Legendary Silver Crystal" "MOON PRISM POWER MAKE UP" is her transformative battle cry, hence, the name of the quilt. It's the all-time favorite series of my friend Heather . . . who I'm making this quilt for.
I began this quilt by contacting Chelsea Spade at www.jadedspadecreations.com. She had designed this beautiful quilt block called "Pinwheel Surprise" that immediately caught my attention because it looked so complicated (as I'm always up for a challenge).
I think the big surprise was how insanely easy this block turned out to be!
So, I made my first prototype:
It was easy enough . . . only five 5" squares of fabric. And four of these little blocks make this:
These prototypes were made out of old leftover bedsheets and napkins. These are NOT the colors I'm going to use.
This wasn't a big enough project and I needed way more work to do, LOL. I decided to take the block construction on step further, and make it with even MORE fabric. Instead of five 5" squares of fabric, I'm now using NINE! My idea was to use print fabrics for the large areas, and use solids for the 'accents'. The end result in this prototype looks something like this (again, NOT the final fabric choices or colors, just a prototype):
The color pallet for this quilt is based on a screen shot from the Sailor Moon animated series:
I played around with several block layouts and color placements to find something original and make this design my own. In the end, I decided to use a slight variation on Chelsea Spade's, where three of the mini blocks didn't have one of the 'pinwheel corners" tucked in, giving it a little bit of an asymmetrical look and feel:
Four of these mini blocks together look like this:
And Twelve of these completed blocks make the body of the quilt:
So . . . this is what I'll be doing for Spring and Summer of 2019. This quilt is going to be A . . . FABRIC . . . . HOG!!! This will easily be the quilt I've used the most fabric for. The body alone has 1,725 pieces (and I haven't even shown you the border, yet). And it's going to be HEAVY! Just the thing Heather will need for those cold Southern California nights!
Here we go . . . FIRST CUT:
While not really about time lapse quilt making, this following video IS about time lapse QUILT SHOP PAINTING.
In late February, Creative Union Fabrics in Kala Point (just down the road from Port Townsend) shut down business for a week for a fresh coat of paint (or, many of 'em). I helped paint a faux finish on two of the walls to create a sort of deep, white marble effect. It was a week-long project with many layers applied to those walls. The end result was beautiful, but during the process, there were pretty scary layers on those walls for a few days!