#gecko's quilt

[kiragecko]

It's been 4 years, but last week my eldest asked for some fabric to make a video game level, and I picked up my quilt to offer them some solidarity. Now we have two new squares!

This is Bluebird (Harper Row), a character who delights me! She doesn't really have a logo, so I decided to iconicize the shape of her chest armour.

The background blue fabric is kinda rough, but the very dark blue of the centre double chevrons and collar pentagon is finer, and the black triangles along the edges that symbolize her jacket are slippery. The ribbons along the edge of the jacket are even smoother, and were TERRIBLE to work with. The little rings a 1/3rd of the way down were very hard to sew into the ribbons, but DO look like straps and buckles to me, so I'm satisfied. I might add more straps with buckles coming off the bottom of the chest armour, because Harper has a LOT of straps, but we'll see.

The borders along the chest and collar armour are breton stitch, with the centre line being long breton stitches that I twisted extra times. Harper's armour is layered, and I think this gets across the sense of overlapping layers.

This has had everything other than the ribbon straps for at least 2 years, now. It feels good to finish it!

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[kiragecko]

The Batman quilt is back!

Background is a really matte purple, with a white cross. The cross is made from a favourite skirt, and its horizontal bar is mostly a band of lace. White cable stitch borders the cross.

I last mentioned this Huntress square over a year ago, complaining about two separate failed attempts to embroider the 'H' logo onto the belt buckle. (That was already my second version of the square. I'm not sure why I've found it so challenging.) I had to completely recover the gold buckle, so now it's really thick and plush. Ended up using black fabric, rather than thread for the 'H,' and it still isn't quite what I wanted. Thin curves are HARD. But I love the thread I used for the double layers of chain stitch around the buckle and the two shoulder darts. The yellow shifts from a gold as dark as the fabric, to a pale yellow barely darker than the white cross.

This square is a mix of the various Huntresses' costumes. I'm only doing one square, despite all the different people Helena has been retconned to be. This way, I get to have all my favourite pieces of her costumes together!

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[kiragecko]

Did I need to make a quilt square for Red X, a side character/costume Robin wore in the Teen Titans cartoon whose never shown up in the comics? Of course not! Did I enjoy doing so anyways? Yes!

This square doesn't show up on the computer well. Too much black on black and white on white. But it's a fun contrast to the other squares in person.

Its the first one that I've made a background pattern for. For some reason, this square needed me to embroider lines of red, black, and white thread onto the black fabric to form a plaid. With the white skull overtop, I think it gives a punk effect that matches Red X's 'trying slightly too hard to be cool' energy. The black chain stitch around the skulls eyes gives slightly more Día de Muertos vibes than I was going for, but I think it works. I also like the contrast between the thick crossed button-hole for the skull's border, and the thin buttonhole for the teeth. Finally, the red X itself is filled with seed stitch and freehand cross-stitch.

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[kiragecko]

It’s the Unternet costume! Worn by Tim for 2(?) issues while in a silly VR internet stand-in, this costume gets a square on my quilt because I love it. Tim’s subconscious thinks that looking like Dick is The Coolest! This is very embarrassing for him and makes me smile.

Both the black background and red V with little wing notches are made from old camisoles. Because of course using stretchy fabric when I didn’t need to was a reasonable choice!

I decided to use negative space, rather than more fabric, to define the central logo circle. Which meant I had to cut out 3/4 of a circle out of the centre of my V somehow. Making round shapes with fabric? Still not easy.

The borders for the V and logo are buttonhole stitch. I love how it gives a thick, chunky edge to the V. Both looks, and feels, nice. The logo is gold, and I wove a different shade of gold through the buttonhole stitch to make a thick, solid border. My Very Little Sister was quite sad that I needed to add a logo to the centre - she loved how the textured border switched to smooth fabric. But its not the costume without the logo, so I used a light satin stitch in the two shades of gold to outline the Red Robin bird, and then loosely fill it in.

I’m really satisfied with this one. Textures are great, and the shiny thread against the very matte fabrics looks really good in person.

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[kiragecko]

In some ways, quilting is the perfect hobby for people with ADHD.

The perfect blend of brainless and intellectually challenging. If you’re sewing by hand, it can be carried everywhere, making it a perfect stim during conversations and other activities that don’t provide exactly the perfect amount of stimulation. There are quite a few steps, and they don’t all need to be done in order - between choosing and cutting fabric for one square, you can sew a few others, embroider a few sewn squares, and/or design any squares you haven’t gotten to yet. Great for keeping focus!

On the other hand, the activity centres around tiny sharp objects that you have to hold. These do not have a set home, usually resting in whatever square you were working on when you take a break. Once you have absentmindedly put one down, they are almost impossible to find unless someone pokes themself with it.

I just ran out of needles, so it looks like the quilt is on hold for a bit.

[kiragecko]

Stephanie Brown, your Batgirl costume has given me endless challenges!

One of the first quilt squares I started, this thing has gone through a lot of changes. The background was originally a completely different purple fabric - once I finalized the arrangement of the squares, I realized that it was going to be right beside a very similar square and not look right. The central column was never completely straight, but adding the new background messed with the angles even more. In the end, there was no right angle to square the logo against!

And yet, I really like it. The new background is a really soft wrap skirt. The central column is a very dark blue, with crushed velvet flowers. I still miss the skirt it was part of - it had a lot of stripes of different blue fabrics and I loved both the feel and the appearance. The yellow bat logo is the first bat I am satisfied with - the learning curve for concave fabric edges is steep! It's thick waffle fabric is raised above the rest of the square, and looks good in three dimensions. And I REALLY like the two rows of chain stitch that form the borders between the side and central columns.

I may go back and add the forgotten ribbing to the side panels. I have the thread all picked out. Until then, I'm satisfied.

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[kiragecko]

It's Jason's Robin square! I originally posted it as the original Robin costume, but I've added the frog closures¹ that I forgot, and a bit more embroidery to better match the newer squares.

(I've always thought of the little bands on the Robin costumes as frog closures, even though they probably reference the laces often seen on Robin Hood's clothing. Some of the art for the first 2 Robins can be interpreted that way ... if you really like frog closures. Which I do. Here's a Jason with little circles at the ends of the bands. Yes, they're probably holes to thread the laces, but I don't care.)

This became Jason instead of Dick because I've started making larger blocks now, and it matches the neighbouring squares better.

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² Frog closures, or pankou, are fasteners made entirely out of thread that are associated with Chinese fashion. When you see 'mandarin collars' or qipao, they're usually closed with pankou.

[kiragecko]

Teen Titans quilt square! Also known as 'Dick has too many friends.'

I couldn't just do the Fab 5, or the TV lineup, or the New Teen Titans era. All of them missed out on some important relationship he's had. This is my compromise - a 9 panel grid with Dick in the middle, the rest of the Fab 5 forming a cross, and the TV Titans on the corners. Each panel is 7 cm (2 3/4") square.

Cyborg - Teen Titans (Go) characters don't really have logos, so I chose a silhouette of Cyborg's head. TV version is better than the comics one because I got to sew on tiny little blue pieces, rather than just boring gray.

Aqualad - Isn't part of the early New Teen Titans, so I went with his original Titans uniform. And then chose a later design for his 'A,' because the original is too boring.

Starfire - so far, no one has been able to recognize this neck-piece on a purple background as Kory. I'm not skilled enough to sew a full body silhouette, and I'm not going to lovingly embroider her boobies, so this is the best I got.

Kid Flash - lightning bolts are hard to make out of fabric. All the tiny corners! So this simple red lightning bolt on a yellow background pleases me. I did well.

Robin - Dick's 'R' isn't near as nice as Tim's. I wanted to get some of his green in, to integrate Beast Boy and Starfire's panels a bit better, and the art nouveau leaves/triangle border was a happy accident.

Wonder Girl - the only original Titan who had upgraded their costume by the beginning of the New Teen Titans. Which makes me happy, because I love the red star costume, and the ropey 'W' belt. Both, however, ended up being a challenge to embroider. Not as hard as Garth's 'A,' but 6 tiny stars aren't easy.

Beast Boy - the reason I chose the TV costumes for these four. It is wrong to have him wear white and red. So his cute little head is on a classy purple and black background, and I am happy.

Speedy - it's just a yellow arrow on a red background. With a nice border. His costume gave me nothing to work with, and I think this may actually be an improvement. I may need to do a version of these guys from a later period, just so I can use his Arsenal duds.

Raven - I like this soul-self raven. In real life, the blue embroidery has a slight sheen and looks like the iridescence of raven feathers. The light blue background ties her to Cyborg and Aqualad's panels.

I like it!

(I tried very hard to fit Jericho in, because I love him. But 10 panels is too many, he has even less of a logo than the TV teens, and he doesn't fit nicely into any of the eras I chose.)

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