The Minecraft Quilt - A Finish

 We finally had a sunshiney and dry day.  Actually it was more like a few hours, so WD and I ran out and took some photos of the finished Minecraft Quilt.


Loki the Dog decided he wanted to be a part.

 Stupid Dog.

 Anyway, WD is pretty pleased.  He drags it around and uses it all the time.  His is a twin size bed on a top bunk.  This quilt is plenty big.  Pretty much queen size. It may be the last quilt I ever make him.  (probably not)

 The Creeper   You can see in the darker areas that I did sort of a wonky square free motion shape.

 Sugar  I originally thought I would hate making this quilt.  I think I mentioned before that my original plan was to do the individual squares.

 Treasure Chest    Once I figured out how to do it in strips and did all the maths, it was like a fun puzzle to put together.

 Crafting Table   This was one of the more piece-y ones, but still fun to do.

 Steve   He was the easiest.  Big pieces.

 Apple

 Diamond Pick Axe

 Stick

 Furnace  I liked making this one the least.  I think it was all the shades of grey.  Grey, Gray and more Grey.  Bleh.

 Stone Sword

 Redstone

 Coal

I used a huge variety of fabrics.  I started out with a pile of Handsprays by RJR Fabrics.  Then added from my stash whatever worked.  Lots of batiks and some solids.  I like the look of the batiks and handsprays more than the solids, personally.  Gives it a more dimensional look to me. There are also some tone on tone prints - and some of the fabrics I turned over to use the back!

WD specifically asked for these blocks.  He tells me for the most part they are the "basics" of the game.  OK, kid.  Whatever.

 His other favorites are green and Charlie Brown, so a fun pieced back.  Mostly from the stash.  Some of the Peanuts fabrics came from someones destash on IG

All the thread used in this quilt was Aurifil. Both the piecing and the quilting.  Love that stuff and so does my machine.

The batting is two layers of Pellon cotton.  It is a very thin cotton batting and I wanted a warm and squishy quilt. I got a good deal on a roll of it, but now that I'm at the end of it, I'm not sure I would buy it again.

WIP Wednesday 9.21.16 Minecraft Quilt

Ready for a completely up-to-date and accurate WIP Wednesday?  This is what my table looks like Right Now!

 If you follow me on Instagram (rachel-thelifeofriley) you've been seeing these blocks as they've been finished.  I started quilting the quilt last night.

 WD, second child in the family, requested a Minecraft Quilt for his birthday.  Minecraft is a VERY popular game, available on all platforms.  All of my kids (sans youngest) play it.

 There are many Minecraft Quilts out there.   (Stick)

 WD chose which 12 blocks he wanted and we I designed them in EQ7.  The game is 8 bit, so pixelated in appearance, which gives rise to easy to make blocks.  (diamond pick axe)

 Well, sort of.  They are really  16x16, which I originally thought I would piece all as squares.  (insert manical laugh here).  I think that is probably why I put it off for so long.  I knew it would take FOREVER to make a single block.  16x16 = 256.

 So then I got the brilliant idea of doing horizontal strips.  It has worked really well.  A single square finishes at 1.5".  The blocks themselves finish at 24". (redstone)

 (apple)   The whole top is done, the quilt basted and I've started the quilting.

 (sugar)  FYI Not all the blocks are pictured here.  I'll save some for later.

 (coal)  The boy's birthday is Saturday.  I'm working toward finishing by then, but seriously, no guarantees. 

 (stone sword)  The funniest thing?  As I started quilting last night, WD says "mom, what are all those white thread lines you're putting on there? Not that I'm complaining...."  so I had to explain to him why quilts have quilting, and when it was all done, they wouldn't be very noticeable.  At least I hope not....

 (Steve)  I want to know why he's cross-eyed.  He was the easiest block, though, because WD didn't want him pixelated, thought he looked too weird.  I still added some interest in his hair, though.

(creeper, unfinished)

It's a rainy day here, and I've got no where else to go besides picking up kids from school, so maybe I can get lots of quilting done.

What I'm Working on Now

 Mostly I feel like I'm working on packing/unpacking and laundry.  No one seems to be home for more than a few days at a time.  We have two more family trips to squeeze in before school starts on Aug 24, too.

But I am slowly starting on a couple of projects.  This first one I'm going to bring up north and maybe at least start cutting squares, even if I don't actually assemble anything.

It's not the first and I'm sure it won't be the last Minecraft quilt out there, but this is what WD wants.  I promised him his "big boy quilt" while he was 10.  He'll be 11 in about 5 weeks.  I better get a move on.

I've had the fabric for a while, all RJR hand sprays.  I think it will look good.  The best thing about webfabrics.net is they tag the fabric so you can reorder exactly the same color! (no affiliation, just a happy customer)

I am also getting started a signature quilt for a dear family from church who are adopting a second girl from China.  For their first daughter I coordinated an 100 blessings quilt (here).  This time around I'm trying something simpler, for more participation, which is a basic signature quilt.

I've got the white squares ironed to freezer paper for stabilization and am having everyone use Pigma Pens.

 I plan on using the Falling Charms pattern from Missouri Star Co - but somewhat reversed, the squares will be the white and the stairs will be from Gooseberry by Lella Boutique. BTW do you get their Block Magazine?  I love it.  It's all patterns, no ads, fun stories and usually a helpful tips section in the back.  (again, no affiliation)

 I'm also getting ready to celebrate my paternal Grandmother's 100th birthday with my family - so there is some work for that as well, but those pictures will have to wait until after the party.  Wouldn't want to spoil anything!