Howler

There are a few blocks in the original Project of Doom pattern that I'm not going to do because of the color of the objects.  My background is black, so black things like Harry's glasses or brown things like the hat will not show up very well.  My solution is to come up with other HP blocks based on the fandom in stitches patterns.

Here's my Howler block:

 

This is another 'quick' block (about 5 hours, I think) since it has no embroidery.

The Monster Book of Monsters

I finished The Monster Book of Monsters this morning.  I chose to make this book red, not brown because I'm using a dark background, and I've had some problem getting good contrast between browns and the background. 

 

This block took about 3 hours for me to make because of all the teeth.  In the long run, though, it is a quick block because it doesn't need any embroidery.  Here's the monster book from my first quilt.

 

 

Bertie Bott's Block

I finished one more block this past weekend.  Here is Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean block.

 

The books are Enchanted Encounters; Where There's a Wand, There's a Way; Hairy Snout, Human Heart, and Voyages With Vampires.

 

I'm halfway through with the blocks for the bookcase:

 

 

To see more design walls: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/10/13/design-wall-october-13-2014/

 

Printing on Fabric: The Marauder's Map

Once upon a time, I was a biochemist working in research at a pharmaceutical company. Then I had my first baby and knew I wanted to stay home with him.  But I still like to do experiments. 

I saw another quilter on Facebook who is doing a Project of Doom quilt.  One of her blocks is the Marauder's Map.  She found a picture of one online and did some editing of the picture so that the map is tinted like old parchment and looks like it has been folded.  She then printed it out  on fabric using her ink jet printer.  She very graciously shared her jpeg file with other quilters.

I haven't tried printing of fabric before.  One of the reasons is that I don't want to make a quilt like that unless I'm sure the printing is going to be of good quality and colorfast.  I've seen a lot of memory quilts with faded pictures on them and don't want to make a labor intensive quilt that doesn't last. 

My first step was to choose the best printable fabric I could find (Dritz's Printed Treasures).  This kind of cloth backed paper isn't cheap, but I used my JoAnn's coupon.  It still cost over $30 for 12 sheets.  There WERE less expensive brands available, but they all said things like 'hand wash' or  'washable, but don't use detergent'. In my world, I use detergent when I wash things, and I think most people do.  This quilt is meant to be used.  I expect it to get dirty and need a good washing .  So after I printed out 3 test sheets, I started my experiment.

I removed the paper backing like the package said.  One peeled of fine, one stuck a little and one stuck a lot.  The paper that was stuck to the back of the fabric came off when I soaked the sheets in water as the package recommended to wash away excess ink. Then let the sheets dry flat, again like the package said.  The package didn't say to heat set the ink, but it did say it was safe to iron the printed fabric with a warm or silk setting on the iron, so I did that.  I zig zagged the raw edge of my test sheet and got started. 

Printed sheet number one got washed twice in cold water with a low temp dry (like the package recommends) and twice in a load of jeans with warm water and high temp dry.  I wanted to do a worst case scenario, I'm sure the girl I give this quilt to will be careful when she washes it, but I also know that sometimes other people want to 'help' do your laundry for you, and they aren't always careful.  I think most people have a laundry horror story:  the time you washed a sharpie, crayon, or chap stick, or the time your husband turned all your baby boy's onesies pink.  I wanted to make sure this quilt could survive a basic error like wrong water temperatures.

 

The sheet on the left has not been washed.  The sheet in the middle has been washed once in cold water.  The sheet on the  right has been washed twice in cold and twice in warm.  You can't see from the  picture above, but there was some fading on the sheet I washed in warm water.

 

 

For my purposes, that amount of fading is acceptable.   Here's my completed Marauder's Map block:

 

 

Thanks again to Sue for making her file available!  She did a lot of work to make this map.  If you want to see more of her work, search on for the Project of Doom group on Facebook.

 

 

Stash Report

I've been sewing a lot, but still have nothing used to report because nothing is finished yet.  I've been having a difficult time with the RR.  I had the perfect idea, but it would have been way too time consuming to do what I wanted to do.  Instead I made 3 of the paper pieced blocks for one side and made fifteen 6 1/2 inch pieced blocks for two of the other sides.  I'm still considering the fourth side. 

We are only allowed to show teasers, so here's one of the paper pieced blocks:

 

I added one half yard of fabric this week when I went to one of the area LQS that is part of a shop hop this weekend.  There is too much going on this weekend to hit the other stores in the shop hop.

 

Used This Week:  0 yards                                                    
Used Year to Date: 67.125 yards
Added this week: 0.5 yards  
Added year to date: 71.625 yards
 Net Added:  4.5 yards

 

We had a family party at my sister's house yesterday.  It was a small group since we were competing with my nieces' and nephews' Columbus Day soccer tournaments, but it is a good thing that it was a small group.  My sister's house is undergoing a major kitchen renovation that was supposed to be complete last month.  She still had no appliances, sink or cabinets in the kitchen. We had food from Chipolte and ate in the basement and on the back porch.  All three of my boys were there, so I was happy!

 

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/10/12/stash-report-week-41-2014/

The Time Turner Block

I finished the time turner block this week.

 

Here are Men Who Love Dragons Too Much and One Minute Feasts- It's Magic!  I have to make sure to get all the cookbooks in this POD quilt because the girl who will receive this one loves to cook.

 

For comparison, this is the same block from my fist POD quilt. The first quilt was nice, but I'm liking the black background more and more. I like the way it make the bright colored books pop.

One More Block

I finished the titles on another POD block last night.

 

This block has Jinxes for the Jinxed, Important Modern Magical Discoveries and Flesh Eating Trees of the World.

 

For comparison, here's the same block in my first POD quilt.

 

 

 I unintentionally  used the same scrap for the test tube in both blocks.  You can also tell that I don't always follow the same order of the books or even the same embellishments on the covers, it just depends on which scraps I grab.