Legend of Zelda: Progress, and Un-Progress....

We all do it, right? Finish a step and realize we've made a mistake somewhere along the way??? Well, that's where I'm at right  now with the Legend of Zelda quilt. Made a lot of forward progress, then some more, and then realized that most of the "some more" has to be undone and fabric recut and pieces resewn. Oops. What's that saying, measure twice, cut once? Let's add 'and make sure you count the right patches, too...."

First the forward progress -- the middle/main section of the top is done. yay!!

the main portion of the front of the quilt
being held by the recipient-to-be son :)

This wasn't without a little mini-oops, but  mostly it went together easily. I only had to fix this one thing. Since I didn't plan out the yellows, and was actually going for a scrappy look, it turned out that all but one worked out to be nice and unscrappy. So, the one had to be reversed so that the pairs lined up correctly, and it looks much better, almost making the yellow triangles seem to glow, which is nice.

Oops. Let's move those bold dots down to the bottom.....

Now the not-so-forward progress -- the side border pieces all got cut, and chain pieced, and half need to be undone because I made too many middles and not enough tips of the colored diamonds (called "rupees" in the game...). Plus I didn't believe the cutting directions, and couldn't get the template to print right, and so I tweaked the cutting directions and wound up with pieces way too small. Oops again.

Mistake One: the tip bits are too small.
Mistake Two: I made double what I need of the middles, and half what I need of the tips.

Here's hoping the undoing and redoing goes along quickly; this is a 2-sided quilt, so I still need to get borders on the front before I can start on piecing the back!

Up Next -- the Legend of Zelda Quilt

This quilt is a special order for my middle son, The Artist.  He described to me exactly what he wants, came along on fabric shopping day and chose his fabrics, and is having a ball watching the stack of triangles turn into his quilt.

I love that he has the confidence to design things himself, and the confidence in me that is his unwavering faith that I can of course pull off his design, no problem. And I so enjoy bonding with him over the design & construction process; so fun to have a special thing that only he & I share; the rest of the family enjoys the fruits of my labor and will cheer and nod and ooooh & aaah when prompted, but my middle boy, he truly gets it. Such a joy to share that with him!

His request for this quilt (it will be bed sized when finished) was simple enough --- the "Tri-Force" symbol from the Legend of Zelda video games, in a field of green. We will also be appliqueing a particular sword but that part is not drawn out yet; I'm going to have him help with that part when we get there.

Legend of Zelda Quilt Design (original design)
front of quilt

He also requested cat fabric. The  original plan called for a border on the front made of cat fabrics, but then we learned we'll be moving later this year and he will likely upgrade to a full sized bed rather than twin, so the pattern had to be adjusted. Of course I'd already bought the fabric based on calculations for a twin sized quilt, and had spent way too much --- he picked out the fabric, which was imported, which means it was quadruple the price, which, well, adds up to way too much. So there just was not fabric money left in the budget, and so the carefully chosen, heavy flannel for the back had to grow....how to make that happen without spending more money?

Thank goodness for EQ7 design software! I was able to play with several different ideas, check the fabric requirements each time, try again, keep playing....yes! A design that results in a full sized quilt, not twin, yet without changing the yardage requirements for the fabrics I purchased (I will instead supplement with fabrics from my stash).  The end result was that a black border was added to the front, using leftover fabric from the Comic Strip Quilt just completed, as well as a border made up of gems from the game called Rupees. These come in a rainbow of colors, so scraps will be perfect! Yay!

Then the cat fabric border got moved to the back and will frame a pieced cat block (oversized), which will set into the flannel backing and thus "grow" that fabric so that I don't have to buy more flannel or have competing cats & video games all on one side. Whew!

blocks, stacked  & pinned in row order according to the drawing, waiting to be sewn
blocks are oversized (finish at 12" squares) to speed construction

I started cutting triangles on Monday, and today I have all the blocks made for the center of the front, and will get them into rows and hopefully all together as a top. Next week, cutting those rupee blocks and making those side borders....with any luck, this will come together quickly and he'll have it ready for his bed before it gets too cold here -- southern hemisphere, so we're in autumn and heading into winter, or what passes for winter down here.

Follow along; it should be a fun quilt to work on!

Diary Quilt: Ohio Star (and a gift for a friend)

Almost finished with the Diary Quilt catch-up posts, this is the 2nd to last block I have to tell about.

Ohio Star Quilt block

This block was chosen primarily for my dear quilting mentor, Jules, who got me started in quilting (check the "labor of love" posts for a hilarious look at my very first attempt to sew a quilt block....).  I've finally written her the requisite tribute letter which I right to all inspirations for my blocks, so now I can finally share it and tell about it here on the blog.

I didn't like any of the "friendship" blocks that were featured in Mimi's book, so I asked Jules what her favorite block was; she replied that she liked the Ohio Star block. I searched on-line for a pattern, incorporated her favorite color (pink) as well as that of a few other quilt mentors (yet to be written.....will do that today!) and cut & assembled the block.

The first attempt, I cut wrong and so the block came out too small. Huh. Oops. I set it aside, thinking I'd finish it off as a mug rug/coaster to send to Jules one day, and then I recut the block and made one the right size for the quilt.

I finally this week finished the mug rug and here it is, ready to mail to Jules. I used a map fabric on the back and quilted a little line from her home to mine after I quilted in all the ditches as well.

front of mug rug version
and card

back of mug rug showing the quilting lines :)
pardon the messy binding!!

The quote on the front of the card sums up why this block is in the quilt --- I am so grateful for the treasure that is you.  This is my tribute, my thank-you as it were, to the woman (and women) who started me on the path to quilting and have helped me along the way. Yes, primarily to Jules, without whom I'd never have taken the quilting plunge, but also a little nod to a few others as well. I'm pretty sure Jules doesn't mind sharing just a bit. ;)