The Strange are Quilting

I have yet to take my machine into the shop, but that means I have had more time to design. I thought I would show some off here. These are all still WIPs, but fun none the less. I started to design the butterfly from Corpse Bride. It is actually a lot harder than I expect. It is hard to find a decent screen capture or merchandise reference image. Those that I did find seemed to differ from each other. The butterfly from the movie is actually really minutely detailed. I could not get all of that detail in with the quilt block, but I think I got the gist of it. I plan on adding the antennae with embroidery, and maybe some lavender/purple stitching around the white ovals. I talked to my local tattoo artist and he agreed to sketch up some old school traditional tattoos for... get this... FREE! OMG! He is such a nice guy to do that. He basically said if it was for a tattoo or airbrushing (which he does) he would charge, but he likes to help other artists out. How freaking awesome...

I have been giving my sewing machine a rest, so I don't have anything new and hot off the presses to show you in the real world. I am too worried that I could cause something seriously bad to happen to my machine and I am too broke to fix it. A local sewing machine shop has free estimates, so I plan on taking it in soon to have them look at it. I can only hope it isnt too bad or too expensive. Not having a functioning machine can really put a huge kink in the plans for a quilting blog. Instead of actually sewing or learning how to quilt, I have been trying to refine and work on some of my designs. My Maggot and Black Widow Spider have been submitted for pattern testing at Fandom in Stitches. My Silence of the Lambs Death's Head Moth has been submitted and is currently being tested. I have no idea how long that kind of thing takes, but I am really looking forward to getting some feedback on my pattern and then I hope it can go up on the website for everyone to enjoy. If/...

Next up on the Corpse Bride docket is Maggot. Since he is pretty vibrant when compared to the other character designs in the movie, he was actually pretty easy to do. I was going to follow his segmentation with my seaming, but I eventually decided against it. Maybe I will do some stitching to mimic the segments when I do this block to augment the look. I haven't done much sewing because (as stated before) my machine is acting up, so I am wary to touch it for fear it may explode. I have been picking up Burton-eque fat quarters when I see them. I was surprised how many my local Meijer had, given they aren't exactly known for crafting supplies. Wish I had more to show you but my other big piece isn't quite ready to show off yet. Soon, I hope. I had to put a gif in here. I just love gifs... I don't get much of a chance to use them in my other blog.

  Yeah, I am a day off, but that's okay. I had a pretty good Mother's Day. That also meant that I haven't really gotten much time to quilt. In fact, I used Mother's Day to get two things done. My sewing machine is old and needed (I thought) some oiling to keep it from doing this horrible squeaking thing it has been want to do lately. It screeches so loudly that it has startled me and I jump while sewing. Not such a great thing to have happen. I got it serviced about 2 years ago because the wheel on the side (I know, I am so technical) had seized up. I got it back and it now worked, but it was really tough moving the needle up and down with the wheel, when before it was very smooth. I don't know what is wrong, but oiling it did not make this screeching go away and I don't want it to seize up again. Worst part is I cannot sew at night because of this noise. Well, that, and I am worried it will destroy my machine. The other thing I did yesterday was... sew. I...

I thought I would give a little progress update. When I have had time, I have plunked away at getting my Burton quilt started. I have a bunch of reference images for the Corpse Bride portion and have cropped them accordingly. Something that can take a lot of time and is not all that fun to talk about. I want to try and take my own screen captures for Nightmare, possibly for Corpse Bride as well. I am pretty close to being done with the character of the Black Widow Spider. I am not completely happy with it yet, but I am very close. It is down to 77 pieces and 8 colors. I can't put my finger on what is missing or off. Maybe I just need to do something else and come back to it. I am going to embroider the pupils, FYI. Maybe because I have been working on much larger pieces with more pieces and colors, this seems flat? I dont know. Let me know what you think. I will post my other pieces when I have time. Let's just say "In space, no one can hear you scream".

After weeks of planning and cutting up freaking cute baby clothes, plus hyping to my 3 year old that she might be able to help me start her quilt this weekend... we ran into a huge problem. Let's start at the beginning. Well, a little over a year ago we moved. I put all of my crafting stuff (which is a lot... I do a lot of stuff...) in our second floor 'suite' (just one big open room with a bathroom on one end). It is basically just packed to the brim with totes, boxes and assorted junk, I mean supplies. My husband and I searched that floor, and then house, for 4 days with no success. I was quite heartbroken. My dad refurbished my mom's old Kenmore sewing machine (she maybe used it once or twice) for me when I was in high school. See, back in the day I had spent nearly a whole summer vacation not only teaching myself how to basic embroidery and sewing stuff, but I hand created a pair of quilted patch work pants from a pair of worn out jeans. I basically took out e...

I am taking a bit of a jump here. I submit for your viewing and reading pleasure a large Death's Head Moth specimen from one of my all time favorite movies: The Silence of the Lambs . This is the second ever pattern I created. I finished tweaking it today and I hope to have it tested soon. It is quite large at about 48 x 24 inches. I am quite proud that I reduced the colors down to 16. I plan on making a smaller version as well, but I am pretty proud of this too. I am not ready to show off my first pattern, as it is even larger and needs quite a lot more work ( teaser ). I will link if/when it is up on Fandom in Stitches if anyone is interested in using it. P.S. Corpse Bride is nearly monochromatic, and it is proving to be pretty hard to get a pattern to work out. I am not going to give up, I am just going to have to take some time to work it all out.

So, I like I said earlier, I am designing this quilt from start to finish. The theme is The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride . My husband and I are HUGE Tim Burton fans, so much so that our vows that we said at our wedding were the ones from Corpse Bride. Beetlejuice (the movie and the cartoon ) were both considered for subject matter, but we decided to keep it to just two movies. I may design a few blocks just for fun, we will see. So the first thing I had to decide was the size of the over all quilt and the size of the individual blocks. We decided on a king sized quilt. That means the finished dimensions are supposed to be 78 x 80 inches according to our great hive mind Google. I decided the blocks should be 12 inches (not counting seam allowances). I think that should give me enough space to make the images readable, but not so large to become unwieldy. Well, 12x6 is 72 inches. If I ad some spacing, that should get me close to those dimensions. I don't car...

I am starting this blog to keep track and encourage myself to finish a quilting project from the start to completion. That means I am going to design, build and complete a quilt completely for me and my family. I may ad some other designs etc. as I go, but the main goal is to create a "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride" themed quilt. Both of these movies hold special significance to my husband and I, as well as our family. I just started learning how to pattern for paper piecing using Quilt Assistant . I have only ever made 2 extremely basic quilts and I have never tried paper piecing. There will be a stiff learning curve, I am sure. I have been introduced to the website Fandom in Stitches . I hope to have these patterns tested and posted there some day. If anything, I need some smaller goals to keep me focused. In addition to being a fledgling quilter, I enjoy knitting, crocheting, loom knitting, afghan crochet and gaming. I am a scientist ...