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Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Mom's Quilting Special - Awesome Minecraft and Ultimate Disney Quilts

One of the things my Mom really likes to do is make awesome quilts! When she told us that she wanted to make Ian and Alli a quilt for their birthdays, Theresa said that they would absolutely LOVE a Minecraft quilt! 


Minecraft is known for its blocky pixelated characters, and with a little ingenuity, and a lot of fabric colors, you can make your own character quilt! The website KelliFanninQuilts.com inspired many of the patterns. The website showed what colors and sizes to use for many characters. 

Many, but not all. Some of the kids' favorite characters needed to be designed from scratch. Mom had a whole binder full of character pictures, then graphs, showing colors and panel sizes for the unique characters the kids' liked. We would ask probing questions like "what's your favorite Minecraft animal?" or "who is your favorite Minecraft character?" and then feed that information back to Mom for incorporation into the quilt. 

A look at a panel that went together. 

The massive Ender Dragon that will adorn the back. 

All the panels completed, but it has to be sewn together. 

Things go together with lots and lots of safety pins. 

Looking good! 

Whew! 30 different characters and items! This one is Ian's. 

And the hallmark on back. 

And Alli's quilt. Mostly the same characters. There's a few different color differences in the potions, swords, and pickaxes. 

And her hallmark. 

What an amazing gift! Thank you so much Gram, Pop Pop, Avery, and anyone else who helped! These quilts now live on their beds in the RV and they sleep with them every night! 

But... that's not the end of the story. 
In secret, another quilt was being made...

In the quilting room (sorry Patrick, your childhood room became the quilting room), hangs Mom's "idea wall". She's got so many different fabrics she's collected over the years, there's dozens of unique Disney patterns. 

What looks good? How should these go down on the final quilt? 

Looks like she's got an idea. 

That's a whole lot of hexagons! 

Looking good Avery! She was so good at keeping everything secret! 

Ah, I see what's starting to come together. 

Using pins to hold everything together. 

And finally surprising Theresa and I with this amazing Extra Large King Plus Sized quilt! There's ~72 unique panels with so many different Disney characters! 

You could look at it for 20 minutes, then see a new character that you swear you hadn't seen before. I, of course, liked seeing Hercules, but was amazed to find Ducktales, Nightmare Before Christmas, Muppet Babies, Up, Monsters Inc, Lilo & Stitch, and so many more! 

And on the reverse? 60 different Disney panels, plus some awesome Wall-E and Eve scenes on the corners!

The hallmark quote comes from the Disney movie The Rescuers with Miss Bianca and Bernard

And why stop there? Mom wanted to make sure we're going to be sleeping on Disney characters each night too. 

For Theresa, a couple of her favorites, Mulan and Merida. For me, Hades and Hercules! 

What an awesome gift! Thank you Mom! 

2 comments:

  1. These are my favorite quilts EVER!!!!

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  2. What pieces of LOVING ART, sewn together with such creativity (and perseverance)!!!...just AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL!!!...so much planning and just dreaming of what to create. Seeing that binder for the Minecraft project was an indicator of the details and planning involved for Ian's and Alli's quilts. Then to see the "Idea Wall"...what can I say?...such a wonderful way of brainstorming and to better visualize the ideas...a quilter's version of storyboarding! Using those hexagon shapes and creating a "mini story" for each center hexagon was very unique. After seeing Pop Pop and Gram kneeling on the ground with all those safety pins and subsequent patch sewing, made me realize how backbreaking it could be at times to work on a quilt! The most special part of the quilts are the personal messages sewn in...so personal and perfect for each recipient. The special Disney pillowcases are very special, too...perfectly tailored to each of you :-) !! EOM

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