One Direction Quilt Project: The Finale!

For those of you following the One Direction Quilt Project... it is complete! & it is currently on display at the Washington County Fair until Saturday, August 23, 2014 in the Domestic Arts building (#24). Congratulations to all the other participants & winners. For those of you who can't make it to the best fair in NY, here it is!

One Direction Quilt by Aprilsongstress on display at Washington County (NY) Fair August 18, 2014

Fiona can't wait to finally take possession of her quilt nearly 2 years in the making!

A special "Thank You" to my mom, Tamaris- Just-A-Duck & to Courtney at KC Custom Framing & Fabrics for pounding out an awesome long-arm quilt job while 9 months pregnant! You rock girl!

Close-up of hand embroidery & machine quilting

For those of you who are seeing this for the 1st time, check out my previous posts:
1.) 02/03/13
2.)  03/12/13
3.) 03/27/13
4.) 04/19/13
5.) 04/26/13
6.) 05/08/13
7.) 05/15/13
8.) 05/20/13


Happy Stitching!

Little Mix project- Perrie

My daughter's other favorite band is Little Mix. I am in the process of embroidering the 4 young women in the same manner as the 5 young men from One Direction.

I began embroidering Perrie Edwards at JFK Airport waiting for our flight to London last week. Between the 2 flights & 2 nights watching British TV, I was able to finish.

Perrie with dip-dyed hair and pic through Sketch Guru

Pattern of Perrie created

Traced on fabric

Perrie is being embroidered using DMC floss # 321 just like her boyfriend Zayn.

Redwork begun while waiting at the airport

I started out using a dental floss container to cut my floss. (What a pain.) I quickly switched when my clever mother suggested I try the nail clippers. So much easier to use! (Though I kept dropping it & mom suggested she tie it around my neck.) I just wish I could take scissors.

Finished redwork of Perrie

I haven't started on the other 3. I think I will work on Jade next.

One Direction quilt project- Zayn

If I were allowed to have a favorite member of British-Irish boy band One Direction, it would be Zayn Malik. He's very nice to look at, shy, & (as I stated before) has the best voice. You may ask why I am not allowed to have a fave? That would be my daughter, Fiona. In her opinion, I am too old to like One Direction! (But I do. There, I admit it.)

I digress... This post is about the embroidered pieces I created about Zayn. If you have been reading this blog you must be familiar with my process by now...

1.) Pick awesome image of your subject & save it. (check)

Zayn singing, showing off his swallowtail tattoo

 2.) Create pattern by tracing over a printed copy of said image, or use an app like SketchGuru. (check)

Pattern created and traced out on the fabric

 3.) Trace pattern onto the fabric you will be embroidering on. (check)

Embroidery in progress

4.) Begin embroidering with your floss of choice (in this case DMC #321). (check)

Finished embroidered block of Zayn Malik

 5.) Finish embroidering & iron. (check)

That's it. It is so simple!

Zayn and Niall's names written by me

 Again, I like to use my own handwriting when I letter. I like using cursive more because it feels more like a design, like art. Printing feels like work.

Lyrics Zayn sings in the song Moments

Fiona wanted me to embroider nearly all of the bridge that Zayn sings in "Moments", but that was too many words for Mommy's sanity. I shortened it.

Only one more "boy" left in the boy band. Stay tuned for... Harry!

One Direction quilt project- Niall

Niall is the only member of One Direction who is not British. He is from Mullingar, Ireland. Because of that, I decided to add an Irish flag & the Union Jack to one of the blocks. I also added the 1D logo and one of Zayn's tattoos. For more on this block, check out one of my previous posts.

Cartoon 1D with signatures for the quilt

Fiona chose Niall & his blocks to be embroidered in DMC floss #904. It definitely reminds me of Ireland, even though it has been 15 years since I was there.

I've shared this block before as a work in progress. See it here. Below is the finished block.

Niall playing the guitar in embroidery

I think it came out great based on the image I created the pattern from. I didn't quite capture his quiff, but I like it just the same.

Niall playing guitar in Live While We're Young video

Kiss You lyrics sung by Niall

I think these are the funniest lyrics in the entire song. Again, I added a guitar for Niall, because I was not embroidering a chin. (Or drool, for that matter.)

Niall's name is complete- starting on Zayn

& for those of you who like to see the underside of embroidery...

Showing off my stitches

Next up is the member I, personally, think has the best voice... Zayn!

Continuation of the One Direction project

Fiona has chosen the lyrics she wants to grace her One Direction quilt. &, so far, I have 3 completed & 1 in the works. She chose a favorite line sung by each one of the lads & I embroidered them in the same color I embroidered their portraits in.

I took the lyrics & wrote them out on graph paper using the occasional block capital letter & my own handwriting. I had thought of having Fiona write out the lyrics & embroider her handwriting, but after she thought about it, she decided that she didn't want to...

Lyrics graphed out to create patterns

What Makes You Beautiful

Above is one of Harry's lines from the quadruple platinum, Billboard top 4 single, "What Makes You Beautiful." I added a butterfly because, apparently, Harry recently got a butterfly tattoo.

Moments

 Zayn sings the bridge in the Ed Sheeran/ Si Hulbert penned song "Moments." Ed Sheeran is the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter of A-Team. I just added hearts & a leaf because leaves fall... &, honestly, I couldn't think of any other images.

Kiss You

 "Kiss You" is a playful song with a fun music video I have included below. Niall sings this amusing line. I added a guitar because Niall plays...

Over Again

I am currently working on Liam's line in another song penned by Ed Sheeran (along with Robert Conlon & Alexander Gowers) called "Over Again." I am adding an embroidered outline of Fiona's hand to this block.

*"Kiss You" video is not my property (One Direction, Syco, Sony).  I have used it here for your entertainment only. Please visit One Direction's You Tube page for more videos (There are a lot.)

National Embroidery Month

Since February is National Embroidery Month, I have decided that I must embroider every day for the next 28 days... Well, 27 since today is the 2nd. This is a sacrifice I will have to make for the sake of my craft! LOL

My current project is one for my daughter, Fiona. She is a HUGE One Direction fan, Zayn Malik being one of her favorites.

cartoon version of One Direction*

*Not my drawing. My daughter found it on the Internet while searching for 1D iPod cases. This project is for personal use only.

Zayn, Liam, Niall, Louis, Harry

This is the photo I decided on for the next piece of the project. Since I wanted them to look as realistic as possible, I decided to try a free app called SketchGuru for the pattern.

pattern created after SketchGuru

After I printed out the SketchGuru image, I used a Sharpie to outline each member of the band.

used light box and pencil to transfer pattern

Louis and Harry are finished

So far I have 2 of 5 guys finished. I am continuing with the colors my daughter chose. Apparently I am embroidering each member in their favorite color. What do you think?