Malfoy Couture

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Sorting Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I’ve been watching a lot of Brooklyn Nine-Nine lately.  The episodes are like Pringles potato chips: you can’t ever have just one, and as soon as you finish one, you immediately want another.  Now that I am well into Season 3, I have spent a lot of time sorting the main characters into their Hogwarts houses, as one does.  So here it goes:

Jake Peralta:  Like the titular character of Harry Potter, I’m pretty sure that the Hat was going to sort him into Slytherin but he asked to be put in Gryffindor.  Why?  Jake values and possesses all four Slytherin traits: power, cunning, ambition, and determination.  But, throughout the series, because he wants to be seen as brave, he actually is.  

Amy Santiago: Please.  Ravenclaw.  Next?

Terry Jeffords: Sarge is in Gryffindor.  He is big, tough, brave, and loud.  An argument could be made for Hufflepuff due to his love of love, family, and food, but at the end of the day, I would peg him as a lion.  

Captain Raymond Holt: another Ravenclaw.  He loves facts, details, and knowledge.  Ravenclaw also explains Amy’s professional crush on him.  Even though he is ambitious and powerful, he is way too by-the-book to be a Slytherin.

Gina Linetti: a slam-dunk Slytherin.  She is definitely the most cunning on the show and would sell her best friend for parts if it meant her own self-promotion.  Don’t get me wrong: as a Slytherin myself, I love her, but she is solidly in the green.

Charles Boyle: Remember that part in Sorcerer’s Stone when the Sorting Hat barely touches Draco’s head and calls out Slytherin?  Well, think of that, but for Hufflepuff.  Charles is loyal to a fault, hard working, and LOVES food.  

Rosa Diaz: Gryffindor.  Fearless? Brash? Poor impulse control?  She ain’t in Slytherin... 

And that’s what I got so far.

[harrypotterconfessions]

I think it’s rather peculiar that we know more about Neville and Luna’s backstories than we do about Hermione’s. We don’t even know what Hermione’s parents first names are, where the Grangers live, or even what signs of magic Hermione displayed as a child. Considering that Hermione is one of the three main protagonists, it’s weird that we know so little about her life outside of Hogwarts.

[malfoycouture]

I agree with the OP and I think other people on this thread have made some good points already, the most salient being, how do Muggle-born witches and wizards reconcile the Statute of Secrecy within their own families?  Clearly, the line here is blurry; for example, the notion of Petunia and Lily’s parents being proud to have a witch in the family suggests that the idea of a secret wizarding world isn’t a huge surprise to them when Lily gets her letter.  The crux of it is, how much is the Statute of Secrecy actually bent or broken within Muggle-born families?  

The obvious presupposition is that Muggles send their children to Hogwarts sight unseen.  However, Hermione’s parents actually visit Diagon Alley in CoS (How tho?), which is a pretty effing clear violation of the Statute of Secrecy, and yet is done in full view of about a hundred witches and wizards, famously including Lucius Malfoy. In sum, my theory is that eventually Hermione ended up spending less and less time with her parents on school breaks because as she progressed as a witch, Hermione found less and less common ground with them. My guess is that this kind of schism is probably a common but sad struggle for Muggleborns.  

[harrypotterconfessions]

For years I wondered why the Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite HP book/ movie, until recently I realized it’s because it wasn’t centered around Voldemort. Like, I’ll always love HP but that realization made me think how I’d love it even more if they ventured outside of the usual villain vs young hero trope and focused even more on the many complex characters of the series.

[malfoycouture]

Yes!  This ^^^ times a thousand!  

[harrypotterconfessions]

Fun fact: Jason Isaacs originally auditioned for Gilderoy Lockhart and turned down Lucius Malfoy.  Now, I believe unequivocally that the casting decisions made in this regard were the right ones.  However, there’s a tiny, teeny part of me that wants to visit the multiverse where he plays Gilderoy Lockhart to see how he would have done it…

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Yay, they posted my confession! 

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Well, shit...

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Bear Patronus Quilt Done

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Hear ye, hear ye!

If any of you live in England and want to see the Slytherin Quilt in person, it’s going to be shown in the Festival of Quilts UK next week in Birmingham.

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Hi! Think all your stuff is really cool bc I like sewing and also HP. However....I just bought my first pack of precut squares to make my first quilt (although I think I'm going to have to buy another bc it only comes to 45 by 45 in ish as is) any advice to first time quilters?

Thanks!  What sort of sewing background do you have?  I’m just wondering how far back I need to go.  Do you know what a seam allowance is?  Do you know how to use a rotary cutter?  That sort of thing...

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Progress.

[hufflepuff-headcanons]

445. Hufflepuffs who are horrified at people who can’t be bothered to separate their recycling

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445a. Slytherins who roll their eyes at Hufflepuffs who have never heard of single stream.  

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I don’t know if I have the heart to tell my mother-in-law that’s not a picture of Jesus.

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Peeled the paper off the other side of each piece, placed them very carefully, and then pressed with the iron to set the entire thing. I am now ready to appliqué.

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And now my pattern pieces are getting small enough that I can just cut them out of fusible. I just have to remember when tracing them, it’s mirror image (flip master over) to wrong side of fabric. I trace it on one side of the paper backing, cut it out roughly, peel off the paper on the other side, stick to the wrong side of the fabric, press it, and then cut it out closely. When the time comes, I’ll peel off the paper from the other side (with the number), stick it down and press it; then I’ll be ready to appliqué. Also? Get a light box; it’s money well spent if you do this a lot.

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Switched to using freezer paper for pattern pieces. Should have done this yesterday.

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Here-a-goes...

I’ve decided to cut the bear’s legs first, as everything else is going to be based on them, which means making pattern pieces out of the master, and then cutting them out of fabric in the same way I would do pattern pieces for a garment:

Because the paw/claw is a weird shape, I have to do what I don’t usually, and apply the fusible FIRST, cut it out (carefully), and then fuse the first side with the iron, leaving the paper on for the time being.  I use a piece of parchment paper when I’m pressing so I don’t destroy my iron by getting fusible on it, which is a risk when you do it this way:

In case you’re wondering, fusible is a very thin sheet of heat-activated glue that allows you to get applique pieces perfectly flat on whatever background, where they won’t move.  It comes backed on each side with a piece of paper.  Normally, you would fuse a rough shape, iron the first side, and then cut them out together, but that is not an option right now because I’m not backing the entire thing in fusible.  As you can see, for the long edges, I am using 1/2″ fusible tape:

Anyhoo, you get the idea:

I’m not worried about the fact that the white-blue edge is showing around the two paws that are done: once the inner V is appliqued in, I’m cutting all of that off: for now it’s just a placement guide.  It won’t even be a waste of fabric, as I’ll use those scraps for the magic swirls from the two wands later.  

Now it’s on to the twenty or thirty more pieces left.  I think it’s gonna be pretty cool...

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Bear Schematic

Here is the bear Patronus scaled up to actual size:

Here is a close-up of the swatches:

What I’m probably going to do is cut the entire bear out of my A fabric and then applique the rest to it, then cut away the parts I don’t need, i.e., the paws.  Then I can use fusible just on the edges for the big pieces.  The small branches are going to be backed completely with fusible, but for the bigger pieces, I’m definitely going to be using 1/4″ or 1/2″ tape only, just around the edges.  This is what I did for the stag Patronus and it seemed to work well: back the antlers in fusible and the finicky parts of the towers, tape for the rest.  If I fuse the entire thing, it’ll 1.) probably stick to itself when I peel the back and 2.) make the entire quilt way too stiff. 

As you can see, each piece is numbered and then has the corresponding letter for what color fabric it’s going to be.  As far as I know, none of the branches will overlay their same color.  I think.  I hope.  

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Another Patronus Quilt?  OK...

A couple of my friends, who are huge Harry Potter fans, one of whom is a Ravenclaw, and one of whom is a Slytherin, just had a baby, whom they named Bear.  Well, that makes my job simple: a Slytherclaw quilt with a bear Patronus, obv.  I finished the background or “canvas,” if you will, tonight: a nine-patch of 3″ finished squares:

I spun out the corners too, like a good girl, which I really, REALLY should have done on both of my last quilts because it is totally, completely, 100% flat in the back, which I imagine will make it easier to long-arm when the time comes:

Here is the template that I made myself in EQ8 to keep track, because spinning corners only works with a four patch and, as I say, mine is a nine-patch, so...

Next is going to be figuring out the actual fun part, which is the applique, which I’ve already designed, as you can see:

Going to go for a layered, 3D look, so some branches look like they’re behind and some front.  Not only will it look cool, it will make the individual pieces smaller and thus, easier to deal with as far as fusible is concerned (trust me, you’ll see).  It will be out of these fabrics:

Totally excited and not at all intimidated!