Harry Potter Project of Doom "Quilt-Behind": Week 18

I haven't been able to do a lot of embroidery the last couple of days, because we are slowly recovering and backing up 1.3 MILLION files from my dead hard drive, leaving the laptop pretty well occupied and covered in wires.  It has been an expensive and lengthy process, but the good news is that all my family photos have been recovered, as well as all my patterns I had developed but not yet tested.  That makes for one happy mom and designer.  :)

Even so, I wanted to get a little something done today, so I finished up half of what will be my block 18.  I actually took the peacock quill and ink bottle from the block 15 pattern, but I have other big plans for block 15, and I wanted the peacock quill somewhere.

Peacock quill and magical ink.

Finding this peacock quill fabric was a total fluke.  I happened to be walking past it at JoAnn, and I thought I remembered a quill in one of the patterns.  Even though I would probably never pick this fabric for anything else ever, it really spoke to me for this particular block.

Close-up of peacock fabric.  It's a little psychedelic.

I went for somewhat plain greens and purples for the rest of the feather.  I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

Our magical ink.

My daughter and I had a hard time deciding on ink bottle fabrics.  She wanted it to be rainbow ink, but the one fabric I had was going to detract from the quill fabric.  We went through my TARDIS cookie jar scrap stash and she found this black with stars and swirls.  We figured that looked like pretty magical ink and would show up well against the natural background.  We went with grey on top because a clear or light color wouldn't show up too well.  I think it looks like the ink is dripping back down into the bottle this way.  I'm not really happy with how it lined up on the left, but it was more important to me that the quill point lined up perfectly, so I think this is good enough.  I'm actually considering appliqueing some drops of ink coming down the side of the bottle later to cover that.

To finish this block, I am actually going to include the potion bottle book variation from block 18.  I got some small potion labels free from Spoonflower when they had a free swatch promotion, and it had tons of little potion labels on it.  I'm going to applique one of those on the book for fun.

Mostly invisible Invisible Book of Invisibility.

I worked on one other fun project today: my Invisible Book of Invisibility.  To make this one, I used clear, monofilament embroidery thread and the alphabet function on the embroidery machine.  I embroidered the book name directly on to my background fabric.

Look what a little monofilament thread can do!

To make it stand out more, this one is going to go under the horizontal stack of books on the Snitch block.  Hopefully it will make it look like the books on top of it are floating, drawing your eye to the empty space and title.

I am also super stoked about some fabric that showed up in the mail today:

Mermaid stained glass fabrics.  These really inspired me when I saw them!

These are slotted for my seventh(!) row on my bookshelf, where I will include the mermaid stained glass designed by Michelle Thompson.  It's available on the Fandom in Stitches Harry Potter page.  The fabric on the right will be the background, and I'm going to add an extra border of the fish fabric.  I have plenty of this, so I will be adding some of this to my book spine/magical item fabric giveaway.

Speaking of which, you can still enter the giveaway!  I've extended it by a week and will draw a winner on Monday.  Just leave me a comment letting me know that you would like some fabric for your PoD ... or any other project you might be working on.  :)  I have two entrants right now, and if I don't receive any more, I will add a bunch of fabric and split the pile between you two lovely ladies!

Harry Potter Project of Doom "Quilt-Behind": Week 25

I really enjoyed this week's block.  I had wanted my quilt to have an embroidery pattern I found on Etsy with the major spells of the Harry Potter world, but I wasn't sure how to include it.  When Jennifer posted this week's block, I knew it was the perfect spot.  Since I left my book open, my spells are escaping!  I accidentally put the tops of the words right up at the top of the block without much room for seam allowance, but I think it will look like they are crashing into the shelf above when I assemble the quilt, so I'm pretty content.

This is the finished block:

Open book block.

It's not exactly square, but because I have altered some of the blocks (for example; I widened the book on the left to accommodate more of the unicorn), I will pair it up with another block that was a little over to even it out.  When I assemble the quilt, I will add a book to each shelf to make them match up in width.  To fit the spells above the book, I had to extend the book cover on the left by about a quarter of an inch.  That wouldn't drive me nuts so bad if it weren't perfectly even on the other side, but I think I'm going to make a polyjuice felty potion bottle to sit right there to cover it up.

Harry Potter spell embroidery.  Pattern by embroideryquotes on Etsy.

I got this amazing Harry Potter spells embroidery pattern from embroideryquotes on Etsy.  I haven't done a great job of trimming up all the stray threads, but I love the way it turned out.  I did have to resize it slightly smaller to fit my hoop, and I used a cotton thread, so there were a few thread breaks.  Nothing too dramatic, though.  Even so, it must have been meant to be, because I got it all stitched up and almost perfectly placed on my first try.

I'm glad I bought lots of this aged book page fabric ...
there are a lot of books in this quilt!

I am using this fabric on all my books that have pages.  It looks like it blends in with the natural background, but there's actually a decent difference between them in real life.  I love that it adds a touch of text without being full of in-your-face words.  It was hard to choose between this book and the dragon eggs variation, but I think the dragon eggs will end up under my bookshelf when I assemble the quilt.

Far Far Away by Windham Fabrics.  This unicorn reminds
me a bit of illustrations in The Phantom Tollbooth.

I adore this fabric, and I got quite a bit of it so I could use some in the girls' new room after we move.  It's from Windham Fabrics and it is the "Far Far Away" line.  Really pretty, whimsical fabrics.

Speaking of fabrics, don't forget to go check out our giveaway post here.  There are no entries yet, so your chances are astronomically good.  ;)  And I may just continue to add more book spine fabrics until we have some entrants, so this giveaway will continue to get better over time.  Head on over and make sure you're in on the fun!

Harry Potter Project of Doom "Quilt-Behind": Week 21 ... and a giveaway!

I was really excited when Jennifer put out a new Sorting Hat block for week 21 of the PoD, and I just had to jump ahead.  I'm trying to work on the blocks as they inspire me, instead of trying to stick to an order or a strict schedule.  It's keeping the fun alive, rather than making this a chore.

This is my crazy fabulous (I know it's narcissistic, but I'm SO proud of this one!) block for the week:

Crookshanks and the Sorting Hat.

I already had the perfect fabric for my Sorting Hat, because my mom had given me about a half yard of soft, cotton-thin suede after making my sister some Link gloves for Comicon.  It sewed up beautifully and pressed nicely.  I was concerned because I knew nothing about the care instructions for this fabric, so I used a pressing cloth and only pressed for a second on low heat, just to set the crease.  This suede may actually end up being the bottom layer of my Monster Book of Monsters as well, but I'll be adding fur on top.

My Sorting Hat.

The same day the pattern was released I had to run to JoAnn for a Girl Scout project, and I thought I would check through the oranges to see what they had for Crookshanks.  They had about a million fat quarters of this perfect orange swirly fabric that I thought would make a perfect long cat fur.  This is one of those semi-directional fabrics, where there's a basic direction (up and down in this case), but no one will notice if it's slightly awry.  I'm pretty happy with how I got the fabric to line up.  The fabric really shines on his bottlebrush tail.

I used the embroidery machine to add the results of my sorting session.  I'm not doing a heavily Ravenclaw-themed PoD except for my wallpaper around the outside, but it's 100% my house and I did want a couple of little nods to it throughout.

If Crookshanks gets lost, he'll make it back home with his personalized pet tag.

Then came my favorite part: the tag for Crookshanks!  I was looking at one of those nitpicky little areas where Crookshanks and the hat meet up in a corner, and lamenting the fact that it was a smidge off and was going to drive me nuts for years.  I thought, "Gosh (yep, I'm a dork in my head, too), I wish there was something I could put there to hide that.  Like a cat tag."  Like.  A.  CAT TAG!  I could almost literally feel the light bulb going off above my head.  Within minutes I had ordered a 2$ cat tag that says "Crookshanks" on the top line and "Hermione Granger" on the bottom.  When it arrived, I stitched it on like you would a button, and it feels totally secure.  I absolutely love that little detail.

Eventually I will be embroidering some whiskers on Crookshanks, but those kinds of additions will come near the end, when I don't have so much piecing to do.

I'm so excited to be making progress on the PoD, and I want to help you get there too!  I have a giveaway for you to enter, with the chance to win some fabrics for your PoD.  I have some fun book spine fabrics, a fat quarter of the Crookshanks fabric, and a large piece of some speckled brown and green fabric that I plan on using for my Trevor when he comes along.  I will draw names from any entrants on my birthday, June 22.  You can see the fabrics you can win below:

Crookshanks and Trevor fabric.

Some fabrics for your book spines.  I especially love Alexander Henry's "The Ghastlies" print on the left.

Just leave a comment letting me know where you're at in your process or how you would use these fabrics!

Is an "embroidery coma" a thing?

I think I may be in one, but it's a happy coma.  Kind of like a post-Thanksgiving food coma.  Lots of gluttony, then lots of satisfied lounging about afterward.

After hosting two themed parties in one weekend (I'll share some pictures later), I was exhausted and needed a break.  Since the house was still clean from prepping it for guests, I took Monday easy and thought I would knock out some embroidered book titles.  Thanks to Susan over at The Bored Zombie, this was me for about 12 hours more time than I care to admit:

A few months ago I borrowed my mother-in-law's Brother PE-700ii to embroider my PoD titles.  (I knew if I hand-embroidered them, it was a project that would never be finished.)  It's a fabulous machine, and I would love to own one someday.  I've been shocked at how many projects I've been able to use it on, both in my quilting and in other areas.  However, we are moving in just over a month, and I will have to return it.  I'm in a bit of a panic because I'm only a small way into my quilt, and I'm stitching up as many book spines and fun things as I can so I can intersperse them throughout  PoD blocks after we move.  I hope there will be enough, but many of my book spines will be made up of busy fabric and have no titles, so I think there will be.

All but two of the patterns come from Susan.  I won't share the individual posts where I found them because I'm picking and choosing from many different weeks, but you can find all of her Harry Potter blocks here.

Please forgive the poor photos; I did a quick snip of any long threads but didn't do a thorough job, and I haven't trimmed the stabilizer and ironed the spines so they appear wonky.  But here's the progress I made yesterday:

The butterbeer label was digitized by Kelly H. over at the Project of Doom Facebook page.  It was meant to stitch up in different colors and probably looks beautiful that way, but I wanted sort of an old-fashioned label that would look kind of like it was etched into the glass so I went with a single brown color.  This fabric is actually going to be the butterbeer in the mug, and I'm really looking forward to stitching up that block and seeing how it turns out.

This is such a fun book.  I cannot wait to piece it the way Susan has, and I also embroidered the "Cram it!" for the top.  Her attention to detail on making books that appeared in the movies is absolutely phenomenal.

"Moronic Muggles" cracks me up.  When I saw it over in the Facebook group, I knew I had to have it on my quilt.  This one was digitized by Sami H.  I went for a sort of "stately" fabric and colors, to contrast with the funny title.  I used dark browns and a gold-tone accent.  The first brown thread I chose was great, but ran out halfway through the "s."  Mmm hmmm.  That went over super well with me.  I ended up restitching over it in a new brown, so it is nice and thick.

This one is a simple book, but I loved the fabric and had set it aside to make sure it made it in my PoD.  I thought I would add a mushroom-themed fabric to the top, but couldn't find one that matched without competing.  I did find a beautiful grey mushroom fabric that will end up being a non-titled book right next to this one.

I love this book even more than I thought I would when I started to embroider it.  I don't feel like I have a good eye for knowing what color embroidery thread will show up best on each fabric, but this one turned out great.  I love that batik and have had it stashed away for a while.  However, I didn't realize how many prints I have that contain lines in them that would drive me nuts when they don't line up with my text evenly.  I'm just going to have to let it slide and hope I won't notice when the whole quilt is put together.

Another simple stitch, but I like it.  There's definitely a place for this on my bookshelf.

THIS BOOK.  It was the bane of my existence, but that's no fault of the file or the designer.  This was actually the first spine I embroidered yesterday, but I was having all kinds of machine issues.  After lots of rethreading the top and bottom threads, I spent some time researching it and learned how to open the top of the machine to check the mechanics.  There it was: a giant wad of thread from when my mother-in-law had used the machine.  Taking that out solved most my problems.  Then I had to learn how to set the tension on the machine for the new thread I bought 40 of, which apparently my machine hates.  Finally, I made three versions of this, and couldn't figure out why it was ending up so perforated around the edge of the embroidery.  Turns out I had accidentally put a larger needle in, which was puncturing the fabric.  It was an exercise in patience and a steep learning curve.  However, I am super happy with how it ultimately turned out.  Also, I love this fabric.  It reminds me of reptile skin, and seems perfect for this book.

The last one is a Snitch for a Quidditch book.  Not sure how I'll incorporate it yet, but I love it.

Related side note:  I found a fantastic free program that I can use to view, resize, and convert embroidery files.  It is called TrueSizer, and you can download it or use it on the web here.  There is a paid version for 50$, but the free version does everything I need it to do.  This will come in handy as I work on my PoD, because some of the Doomers who are creating the files share them in formats that won't work on my Brother machine.

I would love to see your book spines and PoD progress as well!  Feel free to leave your blog address in the comments.  :)

Harry Potter Project of Doom "Quilt-Behind": Week 3

This week I knocked out a couple of the more difficult Project of Doom patterns that are available at this point:  the Deathly Hallows and the Dark Mark.  I am pretty pleased with how they turned out, and I'm glad I included them both in this block.  I am loving all the variations that Jennifer is including for us!  Right now, looking at what I have finished, I'm wondering if I made the right decision to go with a neutral background for my bookshelf.  I'm hoping that by the time I add in all the extras that aren't on here yet and do some quilting, it will look better.  I think having the wooden shelves and the busy wallpaper around it will help, but right now it looks so ... plain.

Some of my progress so far.

The Deathly Hallows was much easier than I thought before I saw the pattern.  It's only two sections that piece together easily, so as long as you can sew on the lines, you can make this one!

I had embroidered the rune dictionary last week in the hopes of finding the perfect place for it on my bookshelf, so I wanted to feature it here.  I didn't follow the original colors because I needed something that would stand out against this fun black and white fabric.  I wasn't sure it would work out on this pattern, but I think it does, especially in person.  Once again, this fabulous embroidery pattern comes from Susan over at The Bored Zombie.  She just released a new set of embroidery titles, and you don't want to miss out on them.  I'm looking forward to stitching them up next week, after I finish the yearly spell books.

Rune dictionary.

It absolutely kills me that the book doesn't quite touch the top of the Deathly Hallows, but I'm going to put on my big quilter panties and suck it up.  (Until I decide to go back and rip it out and fix it, of course.)  I decided I wanted the journal to look leather-esque as well as allow the green of the Dark mark to stand out, so I went with some browns for that part of the pattern.

The Dark Mark pattern.

The Dark Mark.  I thought it would be a lot more difficult than it was.  It was just a lot of tiny pieces and lots of sections that had to match up, but if you're familiar with my work, I don't shy away from tiny pieces.  It didn't end up perfect, but there's nothing that stands out and really bothers me, so I'm chalking this one up as a win.

On a side note, I am crazy excited about the pattern that was released this week and I just happen to have the perfect fabrics for it, so I will probably end up skipping around a bit.  I'm not holding myself to a strict schedule for this project, which is unusual for me.  We're going to test out this whole "spontaneity" thing that my husband keeps talking up and see how it works out.  :)

Where are you at in your PoD?  Just starting out, keeping up, or ahead of the game?