Harry Potter: Project of Doom embroidery (so far)

I was asked to show my Harry Potter: Project of Doom blocks (so far).  I started making these blocks back in 2013 and got the first 12 blocks made.  I also started embroidering the titles on the books in 2013.  Bad me, I stopped making the blocks the week before my oldest son graduated college, and I stopped working on the embroidery that September.

I do think I know why I stopped working on the embroidery.  One of the titles 'disappeared' while I was doing the embroidery on it.  I'd stitched 2 words, then the rest of the letters I was stitching over just vanished.  I couldn't figure out what to do, and just dropped the project. 

Saturday I pulled all the blocks out and took photos of them.  I prepped the last few blocks for embroidery, and I took the stitches out of that one block where the lettering disappeared.  I started over with a wash away product.  It is now waiting it's turn to be stitched.

Here are the blocks I have completed so far.  I've made 2 of each block, but some of them still haven't been embroidered.

Week #1, one block done

Week #1, The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1-6) by Miranda Goshawk, Sonnets of a Sorcerer, Unfogging the Future by Casandra Vablatsky

The 2nd block of Week #1 is the block that I took the stitching out and started over with wash away (purple book with lavender thread).

Week #3 (I'm currently working on the 2nd of these blocks)

Week #3, An Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms, Flesh-Eating Trees of the World by Hugh G. Forrest, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Week #3 block was my slow stitching today.  I'm almost done with it.

Week#4, one block finished

Week #4, Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Geneology, Numerology & Gramatica

 

Week #5

Week #5, Intermediate Transfiguration, Magical Drafts & Potions by Arsenius Jigger, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches, Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks

both of Week #5 blocks finished

Week #6

Week #6, Asiatic Anti-venoms, Achievements in Charming, Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts

both of Week #6 are finished

Week #7, one block finished

Week #7, Spiders & Their Habits, Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean

Week #8

Week #8, The Healer's Helpmate, Sites of Historical Sorcery, A History of Magic by Balthilda Bagshot, Jinxes for the Jinxed

Week #8, both blocks finished

Week #9

Week #9, both blocks finished

Week #10

Week #10, both blocks finished

Week #11

 Week #11, Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broom Care

Week #11, both blocks finished

Week #12

Week #12, Prefects Who Gained Power, Magical Floral & Fauna, The Boy Who Lived (Twice): The Real Story by Rita Skeeter, Predicting the Unpredictable

Week #12, both blocks finished

Week #12, Prefects Who Gained Power, Magical Floral & Fauna, The Boy Who Lived (Twice): The Real Story by Rita Skeeter, Predicting the Unpredictable

The next block to be made is the Monster book of Monsters.  I wasn't looking forward to making that block, since I was thinking it probably needed to be done in faux fur.  Well, I've been re-reading the series, and discovered that the Monster book of Monsters has a green leather cover.  On Friday, I finally found a fabric that looks like green leather.  Now to get back to making blocks for this quilt.

RSC19 & Giraffe's

This is the first year that I've participated in the RSC challenge.  I'm a bit behind.  I finished the last three January blocks Friday night.  These blocks are called Cut Glass Dish.  They are the same blocks that Mari at The Academic Quilter is using. 

January RSC19 blocks

I've pulled some yellows for February's blocks.

yellows for RSC (February)

I've been stitching half the weekend on the Giraffe baby quilts.  Now I have Giraffe bodies to go with the Giraffe heads.

I still need to stitch up the necks for all 3 quilts.  I need to have these quilt tops finished before next weekend. 

Giraffe's & a Win!

About the only time I can get much machine stitching done is on the weekends.  I need to have 2 baby quilts done before the 23rd of this month, and another one done soon after that.

I decided to make 2 of the quilts the same color way and the 3rd one in a different color way.  The hardest part is getting all of them cut out. 

I started sewing the first blocks together last weekend.  I'm making the smaller Giraffe quilts from Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilts pattern. 

3 sets of Giraffe heads

The Giraffe head blocks are the hardest, since there are so many pieces and so many stitch and flip corners. 

Hubby made me a seam ripper holder last year, and it has gotten lots of use with these quilt blocks.

seam ripper holder with stitch and flip blocks

I'm piecing these quilts on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank.  I realized that I really didn't do much stitching on my hand cranks last year, other than exchange blocks and paper piecing.  It's time to make some quilts on my hand cranks again. 

stitching Giraffe pieces

Henry Glass had a giveaway on their blog in January.  Guess what?!?!?  I WON!  There are 13 half yard pieces of fabric in this bundle (all blenders).

These will be fun to use.  I can always use blenders for my projects.

I did finish one of the RSC blocks for January, but I still have 3 more to finish.  I'll show them all together when I get the last one's done.  Now to start on February's yellow blocks.

Harry Potter embroidery

Woohoo!  I found my folder with the 'sticky stuff' that I had been using, way back in 2013, on my Harry Potter Project of Doom book blocks.  The folder had my 'sticky stuff' and also my tracing paper, templates and more.  It even had some of the titles already traced onto the 'sticky stuff' just waiting for me to get started back on those books. 

folder with embroidery tracing stuff

already prepared titles for books

The product that had been recommended to me years ago is Lecien Quick & Clear Transfer.  I don't think this stuff is sold anymore.  If I run out, I'll try a suggestion from Deb that she left in my comments on my last blog post (sorry, Deb is a no-reply commentor, so I couldn't get back with her :(.

I did finish another block yesterday.  This is the 2nd block like this (yes, I'm making 2 of each block).

2nd block like this is DONE

I've been working on some other things too, but I'll show them in another post.

Thanks for all the helpful ideas from everyone.  I now have lots of new ideas to use for the next blocks that I make for this quilt.

Harry Potter Project of Doom (re-start) & other sewing

Way back, February 5, 2013, I started piecing blocks for the Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt from Sewhooked.  I pieced blocks each week until May, when my oldest son graduated college, and never got back to piecing blocks after that.  I did get started on embroidering book titles onto the blocks, but stopped in September 2013.  As usual, I was making more than just one set of these blocks.  I was making 2 sets of each block, to make sure that when I finished, I'd get one of the quilts.  (I really should have been making 3 sets, so each of my son's would also get a quilt).

With my new job, I have some time to do handwork each day.  Since I'd finished my Be Attitudes quilt top (was my current handwork project until New Years) I decided it was time to pull the Harry Potter blocks out and see how much embroidery I had left to do.  Here are the blocks I've finished in January.

one block embroidered

both blocks embroidered

I'd left notes to myself of what colors to embroider each book with, and most of the blocks were already marked, but, some of them said 'sticky' and I can't remember what 'sticky' stuff I was planning on using.  These were all on dark colored fabrics where it would be hard to see my markings or even to mark the fabric with a light box.  Any suggestions from any of you would be appreciated.  I have a couple of blocks partly done, waiting until I figure out how to mark the dark books.

I didn't have to work on Wednesday, thank goodness.  The Chicago area temperatures for Tuesday & Wednesday nights were -23 degrees, and the high for Wednesday was -16 degrees.  On Thursday morning my son called me into the laundry room to show me the frost on my dryer.  The dryer vent is only a few feet long thru the wall, and the cold air from outside caused frost on the front of the dryer, by the filter.

frost on the front of our dryer

Last Saturday, I had the 2nd of the Mug Rug classes at church for the ladies who couldn't get there due to the snow the week before.  Here are their mug rugs.

I decided to join the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for the first time.  I've only gotten my half square triangles made so far.  I use Triangulations to make my HST's.  January's color is RED.

Stitching HST's on a 1927 Singer 15 hand crank

I've cut out 3 baby quilts, and have just started stitching on them.  I hope to have lots of progress on them this weekend.  All 3 baby quilts need to be finished VERY soon.  I also hope to have the RSC blocks for January finished this weekend.