The Harry Potter quilt is FINALLY finished!!

Harry Potter is in the House!!!! Finally!!!!

It has been a long, hard journey for the past 6 months, but finally... IT IS FINISHED!!!
Well, actually 3 are finished! I have 3 grand daughters that have vowed to be "Potterheads" for the rest of their lives so for Christmas this year.. they are getting an amazing Harry Potter quilt.. made by their favorite grandmother... ME!

At first, I was so excited as I was making 9 patch blocks but adding images and words, etc. I was fortunate to find several fabrics at Joann's Craft store as I hate buying fabric online. I like to see what I am getting, see the colors are right, etc, so, I only buy online when I have no other choice. But the prints I got were amazing and.. using a coupon, got them at 50% off regular price.

And I use several kinds of squares like Flying Geese etc and also did some machine embroidery with Glow in the Dark thread. Yes.. it really glows in the dark. I used it as the top thread and neutral cotton in the bobbin. Also, several, what I call, "glitter fabrics".. they really do glitter/shine, but there is nothing that flakes off like actual glitter.

2 of the girls, being sisters,  share a room so I wanted to make them like a bed spread of the same pattern, but some differences to make the quilt their own. I bought the panels for the center and kept those the same so the room doesn't look jumbled with different bedspreads. I then went back to math class and did the math to add sashings and 9-patch blocks to make the quilts twin size. They ended up being 70"x90". The older sister is rather tall so I wanted the bedspreads/quilts longer for her sake so I made them both the same size.

 The width pattern of the quilt is ... center panel, 2" sashing (black with gold dots), 4" sashing (blue with gold sparkles) 9-patch block (9"x9" finished block and each square is 3"x3" finished), blue sashing, black sashing and blue binding. The length pattern is the 9"x9" finished block and Black with gold dots sashings. I know they are going to love the golds in the fabric as they stand out very nicely!
 I was glad to have my design wall...which is a flannel blanket with a casing on top, and an expansion rod through the casing and put up over the closet sliding doors. This way, I have the wall and can still get in the closet when needed. I put each block up until I had the right amount of them, then placed them as I wanted them to be on the quilt.

MAKING THE BLOCKS 

 

 This is one block. I used Flying Geese to make the pointed squares and then cut out the faces of the characters and with double sided fusible interfacing... fused them to the block.  You can also see the black with gold dot fabric. They are raised up and you can't iron them.. they melt off! The other square I made was an "Hour Glass" and I used black and beige glitter fabric. It really does glitter/shine, but nothing comes off!

 This 9-patch I fussy cut images from the fabric  - the square of the school (top left) and the square with Harmonie and Ron (just below that and the dragon middle right) You might notice I did embroidery on some of the squares.. this is done with "glow in the dark" thread. Yes, it really does glow! I picked  15 names of characters and did machine embroidery and wrote the names... notice Hermione Granger in the lower right square and then I did a fussy cut of her face and fused it on! On the left bottom corner...another fussy cut of the Griffindorf logo fused on AFTER the 9-patch was finished.

 This one has HST's for each corner, a Flying Geese for the arrows and a fussey cut "Harry Potter" from the fabric. Also, fussy cuts are of the 4 house banners. Another thing I did that I think the kids are going to love, is this one fabric I got was like a newspaper with phrases and things. I cut them out, fused them to the finished block like in the upper right corner here. Again, some machine embroidery of names in the 2 lower corner squares.

This ne has a few of all of the above! Glow in the Dark name (top,left) Flying Geese (top right). Fussey cut from fabric (middle left and middle right and lower right. The center square and lower-middle are made into one rectangle and I used the Ravenclaw logo and banner and added a newspaper headline.

 This block had HST's on 2 of the corners with fussey cut add-ons and the glittery silver fabric. The center has Hogwarts fused to it. And as you can see, other squares are cut from the fabric as is.

 This one is one of my favorites because I made the three characters on the center of  2, flying Geese sewn together. And you can see the blue and gold sparkle fabric used for the sashing.

This one shows more of the machine embroidery with the Glow in the Dark thread of 6 names. All the squares are HST's. Amazing how many different designs you can make with HST's.







         

This is the back. I used Maurders Map fabric, the same blue as on the front and the Harry Potter with drawings of the Hogwarts school all around.  The binding is black.  This is a close up of the added headline, fused to the sashing. These 2 are quilts, cotton front, VERY THIN batting and cotton back. The point is.. they are on their beds all the time.. lot of sitting on them and being used so I wanted them a little thicker to with stand the use of being sat on etc, all the time.

AND THE THIRD ONE....

I did a third one for the other grand daughter. she is older and being in a warmer climate, she wanted less warmth so hers is more of a blanket quilt. Cotton top, NO BATTING and cotton flannel back.

 These are a few blocks from hers.  Again, HST's with the glitter fabric and some fussey cuts.

This one has a "Golden Snitch" HST. I did some with the gold glitter (beige background)with black glitter to imitate a Snitch also.

Golden Snitch (black and gold/beige)

The Golden Snitch black with gold triangles

This is the back. It is solid and I just fused a few of the fussey cuts around it. 100% cotton flannel and I fused (then machine sewed around) a few fussey cuts from the "newspaper" fabric.

This is the front. Hers is only different in that I made each block separately. I had alot of fun doing this.. just create as I go and make 16 for each quilt

I then thought to make them each a pillowcase to go with the quilts. These two are for the sisters sharing a room.. the black trim is different so they each have "their own" pillowcase!

And although I don't have a picture, I also made them each a 7"x9" zipper pouch.  I used the leftover 3,1/2x3,1/2 inch squares..sewed 6 together and that was the front.

And THAT's my World of Harry Potter for the last 6 months, which also included one month of NO sewing machine as both of mine were in the shop for maintenance and a massive struggle with FMQ'ing stitches not doing right, only to figure out.. I had my thread on the spool wrong! Now THAT was a lesson learned that with NEVER be forgotten!

I hope you have enjoyed the journey and gotten some good ideas for your own Harry Potter quilts or blankets. And with that.. I will not be saying the words "Harry Potter" again at least until Christmas when the quilts will be loved and adored by my wonderful granddaughters!

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