Tag: sandman

sewing

The Horror of It All

Lisa

I’ve been gone a while. Hubby has been in the hospital, quite ill with heart issues. It was very dicey for a while, but he’s finally moved to the rehab hospital and should be home in a week or two. I’m starting to get into the swing of things again, and listed a few things in the shop this morning. I’m also working on getting the house in order, and restoring some mental stability to the dogs, who freak out when we are gone, much less for two weeks. Lots of work to do before their papi comes home, but I’m getting there.

I mentioned some time back about the horror themed quilt I made my son for Christmas, so I thought I’d share some quick and dirty pictures, done by the bachelor guy. This was done with the help of a lady at the local quilting shop, as I have done very little quilting in the past, and that was not done with a clue as to what I was doing. My machine gave up the ghost midway through, and the quilt shop did the quilting, but I was happy with how it came out, and he was INSANELY happy with it. Let’s just say, we talked on Christmas Eve about one thing we were thankful for, and when he said “horror movies”, I knew I had a winner on my hands.

The background, as you can see, is a blood spatter print. The pattern is in Irish rings, and includes prints of old movies like Dracula, The Fright, Frankenstein, etc, as well as newer movies like Alien, Predator, The Shining, Chucky, It, and a bunch more. There’s a bit of Dia de los Muertos, and the Deathly Hallows emblem from Harry Potter. I sourced fabrics from Etsy for the most part. The Harry Potter print came from a Walmart remnant. The binding is kind of a reverse blood spatter, from a remnant that I already had. It is bright red with tiny white polka dots.

The back was sourced from Spoonflower, and is a print of quotes from The Sandman. Not horror, I know, but it’s my son’s favorite graphic novel series. He mentioned in the fall that he plans to get a tattoo of Death from the series, so I went looking and voila! Found this print and knew I’d hit it. As you can see, the panels run vertically and repeat across, so there’s not a ton of quotes, but it hit the target and he was flabbergasted to see it. I bought a Sandman Tshirt on Etsy that features Death on it, and planned to put a panel in the middle of the back, but the black of the T shirt and the lighter gray didn’t mesh well, so if I get my act together, I’ll make him a pillow from it to go with the quilt.

What do you think? It’s definitely not perfect, but I felt accomplished that I got it done, and my son’s happiness with it made it all worth it.

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sewing

Horror-fying

Lisa

It’s getting colder, which means I’m getting ready to go into my winter foray of sewing (poorly). I’m trying not to actually pull out my sewing machine for a while, because at the moment the sunroom table where I sew is literally covered in patterns and Aunt Martha’s transfers, and hubby will have a fit if I put more on there. It is, for the record, in his direct line of vision whilst he is on the couch (which is all day and night), so I do try to keep the pandemonium down to a minimum.

Our little town recently got a fabric store. This is a huge bone of contention between me and my husband because its been my dream to open a really good fabric store. Indiana is a fabric desert, with the sole exception (that I know of) being The French Seam, in northern Indianapolis. It’s small, but it has beautiful fabrics, and isn’t just a dearth of fleece and quilting cottons, a la Joann’s. I’ve been saying for years that I want a fabric store, and would love for it to be something like Vogue Fabrics in Chicago. We are, after all, just off the interstate. Hubby has been quite firm in saying it would never fly in our little town. He’s lived here much longer than me, so he might be right, but don’t kill my dream, man.

Then I saw that someone beat me to it. DAMN.

I haven’t been in there yet, but have been watching their Facebook page to see what they’re about. Kind of wondering if I could drop off some cards to point people my way, but haven’t decided. Then I saw that they are having sewing classes and thought, eh, maybe. Then I saw that they are doing beginning quilting classes and thought what the heck, I’ll do it. My only foray into quilting was making T shirt quilts for my husband’s boys out of their mom’s Race for the Cure shirts. They weren’t particularly well made, but at least one son appreciated it (the other threw his over the fence at me in a fit of anger. He won’t be getting it back. He’s a 50 year old brat.). I thought oh well, I can go take a class on a couple of Sunday afternoons and see what I can do.

I tried to figure out what the heck I was gonna do. The last thing we need in this house is more blankets. We have SO many. I had a memory quilt made for me last year out of my mom’s clothing, and love it. My daughter doesn’t need any more either, so making one for the grandkids was kind of out, at least for now. So I decided to make one for one of my boys. I have a bunch of my youngest’s T shirts from back in the day, and plan to make him a quilt from them, so that just left my oldest. But what kind of theme do you use for a 33 year old bachelor who is a complete free spirit who loves movies?

Why, a horror quilt, of course.

Horror is his favorite genre, so I picked out a ton ton of horror themed fabric (think: The Shining twins, Chucky, old school Dracula and Frankenstein, Freddy Krueger) for the front. The background? Blood spatter. The borders are creepy trees and more blood. I am SO creeped out by it all. I don’t like scary, even less do I like horror. The people in this class are going to think that this crazy old lady is insane, but I think it’s hilarious. Our town is super, super conservative in all of its thinking. Me? Not so much. I may need to video the reaction people have when they see what I’m doing. My friend, an expert quilter, thinks the whole concept is absolutely wonderful. This, coming from someone who goes to yarn conventions for excitement. Maybe I’m on to something?

Then I had a conversation with the Heir to the Throne, who doesn’t know I’m doing this at all. He was talking about The Sandman. Raving, in fact, about how it’s one of his favorite pieces of literature, and how Death is his favorite character. Well, now I had the back of the quilt figured out. It’s going to be quotes from The Sandman. I bought it on Spoonflower, here. See some of my other crazy choices here, here, here, here, here and here.

I’ll post pictures when I’m done. Class isn’t until the last two weekends of November.