Can't Stay Away For Long....

So I designed a lot of patterns. Not all got tested so not all ended up on FandomInStitches. Instead they sat in a dark corner of Google Drive, untested and unknown. Sad, I know. In my defense, most things I design I do intend to one day make myself. Maybe. Someday. Or not.

Anyway, FiS decides they want to do a Rankin and Bass Christmas Quilt A Long. And who has a couple Rankin and Bass patterns sitting dusty and unused? You got it. So FiS asked me to pull them out and get them tested. Suddenly I'm back in the quilting world after a long hiatus. So let me introduce the Miser Brothers:

Heat Miser
(tested by Jessica A, Kimberlee B and Jeanie P)

Snow Miser
(tested by Jessica A and Jeanie P)

I can finally post them now that they have gone live on the FiS website. Tweeking the patterns has gotten me designing again and if you check out my Quilt Blocks I've Designed page, you will find a lot of new patterns. Untested of course.

The X-Files Quilt Along: FBI Badge

So I'm doing a quilt along with FandomInStitches. It's an X-Files quilt. Not one of my fav fandoms, but I have a friend that would love it when its done so it's totally his. If I ever finish it. Most of the blocks are embroidered and that is not my fav type of block. So when they asked designers to make a block I had to do paper pieced. I designed it for 10x10 but after I re-read the rules I found it had to be 6x6 so I re-sized it. The problem is there is a lot of very tiny pieces. Go slowly and iron  the ever-loving hell out of it.

Jar Jar Binks Quilt Block

Tested by Simon B. Photo used with permission.

FandomInStitches is planning a Star Wars post and asked their designers to make a new Star Wars block. That was tricky. There is a lot of SW quilts out there. I finally settled on Jar Jar. Yeah, yeah, I know that a lot of the fandom hates him with a burning passion, but you can't deny that he is a major character and thus deserving of  his own quilt block.

This is just my submission. You guys are gonna LOVE all the things the other designers have come up with. Stay tuned, it should be posted in the next week or so.

The Auryn

Tested by Angela G.

A new quilt block from the FandomInStitches request page. The Auryn from Never-Ending Story. It's been a rather long time since I saw the movie, but the Auryn turned out awesome! Angela put the block together for me and I fixed some minor issues she had with lines not meeting up quite right. Overall this block as got me thinking about translating some Celtic Knots into quilt blocks. How cool would that be?

The Serenity Quilt Block

Photo used with permission from Helen C.

A request came into Fandom In Stitches for the starship Serenity from the TV show Firefly. Well, as luck would have it, I already had that pattern made up and just needed to be tested! So here we have the firefly class ship "Serenity." The tester is thinking of adding embroidery to outline windows and panels which I whole-heartily encourage. I designed it as a silhouette in mind, but as a focus piece it probably needs the embroidery. Some flaws were found in the pattern, but hopefully I have fixed them and simplified the joins. Enjoy!

Blackhawks Logo Quilt Block

Photo by Dyana C. Photo used with permission.

Last week we had an urgent request come into our quilt block designing group. A woman was desperate for a Chicago Blackhawks logo design for a gift quilt. She was running out of time before the birthday party. I happened to be online when the urgent request came thru, so I figured why not? Seemed easy enough. I downloaded a picture of the logo she wanted and designed the block that night. I don't think she's going to do any of the optional embroidery, but there is instructions for that if anyone else does want to do it. I do believe this is my first real face and I'm kind of proud of it. She did a fantastic job sewing it as well. I think it was her first paper pieced quilt block.

For anyone who is looking for a fandom related quilt block and just can't find it, this is the link for submitting requests to FandomInStitches. 

Pokéball Quilt Block

Tested by Stephanie T. Photo used with permission 

Last week I decided to spend the day at the library. I like my library. The quiet peace of a hundred people working and learning. I find it soothing. So when I need a mini vacation I spend the day there. Good food in the cafe, free wifi, anything and everything I could ever want to look up, its all there. For some reason I wanted to see how fast I could make a quilt design. Beginning to end, finding the photo, designing it, writing up the cover page, all the way to compressing it all into a pdf. I looked at our spreadsheet that lists all the requests people have submitted to FandomInStitches and wanted to pick and easy block to do. The Pokéball from Pokémon seemed easy enough to do. So I timed myself. 43 minutes if your interested. Now that is not typical, this really was an easier one to do, but now I really have a urge to just go down the list of requests and do them all. There is like 300 requests so I don't think I can do em all. Maybe if I had internet at home I'd spend a few weeks knocking them off the list. For now I'll just putter around with them.

My tester said the ball didn't really want to get lined up nicely so I'm going back and seeing if there is anything I can do to make it easier to assemble, but until then its done.