Project of Doom: my Harry Potter quilt
I finally finished my oldest project, kindly referred to as the project of Doom. Not just by me, but by the website who hosted the first ever quilt-a-long for this project. It's the Harry Potter bookcase quilt, with the free patterns made by fans for the website Fandom in stitches. It's a massive project, all the blocks are made with FPP (foundation paper piecing). And there are so many blocks and options to choose from, which makes it an amazing project, but there are also so many choices te make....
I started this project when I was still living in Dubai, even before the pandemic and worked on it on and off. The beginning of this year I decided that I really wanted to finish it by the end of the year 2023, or at least try to finish it. Together with my friend and fellow board member of the Dutch MQG Deveney, who is also working on this quilt, we decided to plan a regular Harry Potter quiltbee. We both live on the other side of the country so it ended up being a quiltbee via zoom. This really helped me to stay motivated and to continue working on the quilt. We spend many evenings chatting and helping eachother decide what blocks to make and I'm so glad we did this, because by the end of December 2023 I have a finished quilt.
One of the hardest things I found when making this quilt is deciding on what blocks to make. This is also one of the best things, that there are so many options and great patterns on the side. But it can feel rather overwhelming at times. When I started there weren't as many options as there are right now (end of 2023). When I started out planning the blocks I wanted to make a few years ago I decided to stick with the very first plan on the side and choose either the original block or a variation. I did quickly realise that I wasn't that good at following the patterns for the single books, so I improved those often. Letting the fabric decide shape and size.
I also added the picture frame on the bottom row as a own design. In the summer of 2023, Tula Pink came out with the DejaVu line of night shade and I found this print a perfect fit for the bookcase. I used several of those fabrics in this quilt, also on the top row. Another thing I decided to do is add the selvedge of several of my favourite fabric lines as book titles. Can you find them on the quilt?
During the making of these blocks the idea grew bigger and bigger, I wanted to add blocks on the side of the bookcase, under and on top, so I could keep on adding things to this quilt. There were also so many great options for the feet of the bookcase, but in the end I had a good chat with myself, that there also comes a time when something is finsihed and did I really wanted to make my quilt as big as that?
So around the start of autumn I dediced to just stick with the bookcase as it is, and not add any other blocks on the side. Originally I was planning to make some nice shaped feet with rounded of shapes, but I ran out of fabric. So in the end I went with straight legs.
I finished the quilt during a quiltbee with my friend Irene and asked for her advice on wether or not to add a border on the outside. But decided against this, because she and I both thought this woudl take away from the shape of the bookcase. So I just added a small strip on the bottom between the legs in the colour Bone by Kona to keep it simple and really keep the focus on all the bits and pieces inside the bookcase. Do you agree, or would you have done someting else? Let me know, always curious to hear other ideas and views.
Now the quilt was finished I sent it of to Mique from Blue Thread quilting, a friend and amazing longarmer. I gave her totally free reign and she made it absolutely perfect, there are so many great little details added. Spiderwebs, words, my name and initials on a book, bubbles and song notes, to much to write down. I could fill a whole blogpost with all those amazing details she added. I would highly recommend her if you have a quilt you wante to be longarmed and you live in the Netherlands.
The last thing to do for me was to add a binding and a sleeve for hanging. I decided to match the binding fabric with the front of the quilt so it's actually hidden and the shape of the bookcase stays intact. I stitched the binding to the front by machine and handstitched it down on the back as you can see on this picture. I've also added a picture of the backing fabric I used. Normally I don't pay that much attention when choosing a backing, but for this quilt I found the perfect one in the UK and had it shipped to me.
I'm so happy that after all those years of my quilt being a work in progress (aka WIP), it's finally finished and it is defintely one of my favourites. Looking back at all the little bits of scraps and different fabrics that I used from when I was starting out, to some newer fabrics. This quilt really tells a story and Mique made it even better by al the specialty quilting she did on her longarm. Thank you so much!
And now its time to move on to the next work in progress on my list, and ofcourse finding the perfect place to hang my quilt. I hope you enjoyed reading about the process and loved looking at the photo's of on of my favourite quilts I made. If you like reading a long on my quilting and crafting journey, please like, leave a comment and come back for more.
Sanne
_JPG.jpg)