Princess Zelda Quilt

I first started working on the template for this quilt in March of last year and posted the final template a couple months later, complete with measurements.  One year later, it's finally finished.  I wanted to try something new with this quilt by including a flower block pattern in each of the four corners of the quilt, but soon realized that my skills were not up to that level.  Unfortunately, I cut the fabric for the flower blocks before I came to that conclusion, so that cost me some time.

The abandonment of the flowers turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I still wanted something different in the quilt, so it wouldn't just be an image of Zelda.  The image of the Triforce quickly came to mind.  For those who don't know, the Triforce is the ultimate source of power in the Zelda series and serves as the balance that weighs the three forces: Power, Wisdom and Courage.  After thinking about it, how could I not include it in Emilie's quilt?

Integrating triangles into the quilt posed it's own set of challenges, but I figured it out and I think it looks really nice.  I also love the colors in this quilt, very bright and cheerful.  Emilie is happy with her new quilt, too, and she has slept with it every night since I finished it for her.

Link Costume

After beating Ocarina of Time for the 3DS it didn't take long for Ari to declare that he wanted to be Link for Halloween.  No sooner did he say it, I started planning how to make the costume.  I originally planned to make a tunic and hat for him, but was concerned about my limited sewing skills.  Upon studying a picture of young Link from the video game, it looked as if his tunic was just a big polo shirt.  With an idea in my head, we went shopping.

I was surprised how hard is was to find a green polo shirt for boys, but we finally found a green button-up shirt that looked the part.  Ari tried it on and it came down to just above his knees.  I found two belts in the store and buckled one around his waist and one across his chest and it looked perfect.  Our little Link was coming together.  Now it was time to equip him with some weapons and accessories.

My weapons search was in full swing when the living history encampment, Koh-Koh-Mah, was holding it's annual event.  I was excited to search the vendors for a sword, bow and arrow, and other items Link had in the game.  The first item we found was a little leather pouch that I could wrap around his belt.  The other item we found at Koh-Koh-Mah was a little wooden sword complete with a sheath.  I was very happy to find that sword because I could attach the sheath the belt that went across his chest.  Our trip was successful, but I still wanted a couple more items to complete the ensemble.

I went to the internet to find the rest of the items.  I found an inexpensive bow and arrow, boomerang, and even an ocarina.  His costume was really coming together, but he still needed boots and a hat.  We found some Ugg type boots that worked really well; plus, they fit Valerie.  Bonus!  I made his hat after finding an elf hat pattern on the internet, which came together a lot easier than I thought.  We also stumbled upon a Legend of Zelda belt buckle on clearance at Toys-R-Us that I snatched right up.  And, I printed an image of the Hylian Shield and taped it onto a Nerf shield Ari already had.  After all that, his costume was finally complete.

I was surprised how much Ari looked like Link.  I showed him the side-by-side picture that I posted above and he couldn't wipe the smile off his face.  He looked at it in awe and was quite pleased with himself.  The best part about this costume is that he can play with all the items after the trick-or-treating is over.  Plus, he has a couple of nice belts and a nice green button-up shirt for the future.  Valerie also got a nice pair of boots out of it.  Definitely a costume to remember.

Princess Zelda Quilt Template

I have finished the design and purchased the fabric for Emilie's princess quilt.  I am stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit by adding some flower blocks to the front of the quilt.  The directions for constructing the flower blocks can be found here.  Otherwise, it is the standard square procedure I have used many times in the past.

For Zelda, I am using her likeness from the "Oracle of Ages" and "Oracle of Seasons" video games.  I did not stay true to her original colors as I wanted to have a bit of variation.  Overall, I really like the way the design turned out and I can't wait to see it come together in fabric.

As for the template itself, I want to show how I go about designing my quilts.  I use Microsoft Excel and just fill in the cells with the colors I want them to be.  Once the design is complete, I divide the size of the quilt by the number of squares in the row to see how big the squares need to be.  For this quilt, I want it to be 4 1/2 feet wide, or 54 inches.  So, I divide 54 by 24 and I get 2.25.  I add a half inch to account for the overlap from sewing the fabric together, and I know I need to cut 2.75 inch squares.  The length of the quilt will be 6 ft.

To determine the amount of each color of fabric, I first add up how many squares of each color I will need.  I then determine how many 2.75 inch squares I can expect to get out of a yard of fabric.  36 divided by 2.75 is 13.09, which I rounded down to 12 to account for cutting errors.  Most fabric widths are in the 40 to 44 inch range, so I then divide 40 by 2.75 just to be safe, and I get 14.  12 x 14 is 168, so I can expect to get 168 squares for each yard of fabric.

Finally, I divide the number of squares of each color by 168 to determine how much of each color to purchase.  As you can see from the picture above, I don't need very much of some of the colors, and luckily, I already have some white on hand from previous projects.

Phew, that's a lot of math.  I'm glad I wrote it out, though, so now I have a reference for if I forget how to do it in the future.  It really is easy, though, and the square patterns to design from Nintendo characters are practically endless.  Yay!  Plus, by using the method above, you can make the quilt any size you'd like.  I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress.

Princess Zelda Quilt Templates

To put it lightly, Emilie is a big fan of princesses.  She knows all the Disney princesses, goes crazy whenever she sees Princess Peach, and likes to play Zelda on the DS.  When she started sleeping in her 'big girl' bed, she picked princess bed sheets; and we just put some Tangled wall clings up in her room.  So, I thought it would be fitting to make her a princess quilt for her bed.

Having success with with the square patterns from early Nintendo characters such as Mario and Link, I decided to check out what the princesses looked like.  I first looked up Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros.

Even though the squares are easily defined and not too small, I didn't like the looks of this Princess.  The other images of Princess Peach didn't really impress.  I then moved on to Princess Zelda to see if her 8-bit representation was any better.  I first checked the original Zelda design from The Legend of Zelda.

Although I thought this Princess Zelda looked better than Princess Peach, it still wasn't what I was looking for for Emilie's quilt.  So, I searched for other images of Zelda and found a couple that would translate well to the kind of quilt I want to make. 

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons

 

Four Swords series

These two iterations of Zelda are both from handheld Nintendo systems, so the images I was able to find were all very small.  They were also quite blurry when I magnified them, so find the block pattern was a bit difficult.

I couldn't decide which pattern to use for the quilt, and I had a grand plan to take it to a vote here on latent chestnut.  Then it hit me, it's Emilie's quilt, I should let her decide.  So, I called her over to the computer and asked her which princess she wanted on her quilt.  She decided on the Zelda from Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. 

I'm thinking about incorporating some new techniques with this quilt, as well.  I have found some flower patterns the I may put in the corners or around Zelda somehow.  Whatever I decide, I am definitely looking forward to me next quilting challenge.

The Legend of Zelda Link quilt

Why stop at Mario? There are so many other 8 bit Nintendo characters out there just waiting to be turned into a quilt!  Link, from The Legend of Zelda, is almost as iconic as Mario, and a perfect character to be made into a quilt.  I gave this quilt as a Christmas present, so I didn't do any progress posts in order to keep it a secret. 

These 8 bit character quilts are easy to design, though.  I just do a Google image search for the character I am looking for, then insert the picture into an Excel spreadsheet and color in the squares of the spreadsheet to match the pattern of the character.  From there it is simple to calculate the size of the squares to make the quilt as big or as little as you like. 

The Link quilt couldn't have turned out better, and I was delighted to give it as a gift.  Even though a small part of me wanted to keep it.  One can't have too many quilts, right??