Building Robots

To get things started in 2013 I decided to do some pieced quilts.  Our family has welcomed several new babies, with another on the way this year.  I have missed piecing quilts, so as soon as the holidays passed I began thinking about what to make.  I have 4 different quilt tops going right now, which is insane, I realize, but sometimes the creative juices start flowing and I wanted to take advantage.

We have a new set of twin boys, born late last year.  Their father is an engineer, as are many of the men in our family.  Somehow, robots seemed like a fun idea.  I found some great fabric and decided to make 2 quilts with very similar features.  First, I strip-pieced a large, square panel and cut it in two sections.

Here is a portion of one quilt as I am deciding how to do the borders.

I used my Go! fabric cutter to die-cut the strips, all fat-quarters.  I took each set of strips and picked one from each pattern, stacking them one set after the other, and then pieced them.  I did do the jellyroll trick of piecing them end-to-end, then sewed them, one long strip to the other, cut the end, brought it to the other and sewed.....until I got a panel that was the size I wanted.  

Even though the border fabric with the pencils and sharpeners isn't 

in the same fabric line, I like how it works

Here is the sketch of my robot's head

....and my sophisticated tracing tool!

(all the fabrics I am using to create my robots  have been 

previously fused with Mistyfuse.  It is easier to fuse, then cut out,

my various shapes

The pieces are assembled over a teflon sheet

Using my awesome Havel's 7" scissors for cutting.

I love how well they hold the edge while cutting intricate shapes.

Robot head and neck

I referred to one of the robots in the fabric print for my design inspiration

Using a Pentel Gel Roller Fabric pen, I drew in a few details on the gauges...

Mr. Roboto #1 is finished and ready to fuse to the quilt top!

Here is Mr. Roboto #2

I decided to use the negative space from the hexi die-cut fabrics.  My friend Jamie

suggested putting the colors behind the openings, which does make it more visible on the quilt surface.

I love the gray hexis, but they show up better after fusing them to bright solids and cutting around the edges.

Here is one of the two quilt backs...

and here is one of the two finished quilt tops.

Sorry for the odd angle on the photo.

Making these quilts was such fun!  Using Mistyfuse and free-cutting the robot shapes was a blast!

Try it!