IU Quilt Template

With college basketball season fast approaching, I would like to have something warm and cozy to wrap up with when the Hoosiers hit the hardwood.  I doubt I will be snuggled up in the quilt while they are playing (I am usually at the edge of my seat) but it will be nice to have while I am basking in their victory.

I considered several options for this quilt, but I think I have settled on a design.  I contemplated a cream logo with a crimson background, but I think the crimson logo with cream background looks better.  I also thought about what the back of the quilt should look like, and I still don't know if I have decided. 

I wanted to buy an IU pattern fabric for the back, but learned that it doesn't exist.  A solid cream or crimson back was also a consideration.  What I am leaning towards right now is a cream and crimson candy stripe back similar to the IU warm up pants.  Time will tell.  For now, it's time to start cutting!

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.