I sent Damien's quilt off on it's trans-Atlantic trip to the lovely @shoepigeon (on the Twitter). She along with a whole BH Blogger Army (I believe about 20 in number) delivered it to him when they saw his play "If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Wont Let You Sleep" then met him at the Stage Door of the Royal Court Theatre on 2nd March. Here is the video, courtesy of Ms. London Laura. Many many thanks for her sharing this video, it made me Squee and cry and in a little way I felt I was tangentially there.
Oh and also, I sent him some Stumptown coffee, one of his favourites. I think that got more manly Squee's than the quilt. The man has priorities!
And Many many thanks to Trevor and Brooksey for sharing the beautiful pictures they took that evening. Looking at these wonderful pictures, I could be standing right there!
-- Edited by whimsyfox on Thursday 25th of July 2013 09:07:13 AM
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
A couple days after the quilt was delivered to Damien, I got THIS TWEET from Laura Cotton, script editor for Being Human. I happened to be Skyping with a few of the bloggers at the time. Many SQUEE's and THUDs ensued! Positively Giddy!!!!
Let's see that fabulous picture a little bigger....
It's my understanding that A WHOLE BUNCH of Being Human writers/cast/crew were there to watch Damien's play and saw my quilt. This includes Lord Toby Whithouse himself, wonderful BH script editor Laura Cotton, brilliant writer of S5E5 Sarah Dollard, the lovely Kate Bracken, BH script writer Mark Williams, BH producer Polly Buckle, and director Daniel O'Hara. I couldn't believe it, he brought down my quilt and showed it to everyone. I am touched that he wanted to share it with them and overjoyed that so many people I admire got to see it.
I even found out that Sarah Dollard is a quilter herself. She also tweeted me with kind words about my craftsmanship.
This has been an absolutely wonderful experience for me. Not only did I make a tangential connection with Being Human bloggers, writers, cast, crew, I challenged myself with a project unlike any I've made before and I have wonderful memories to treasure.
AND....
I sent Damien some pictures to sign, assuming I would just get his signature on them and that would make me a happy whimsy. But he went above and beyond and personalized the autographs which makes me a positively giddy whimsy!!!!!!! (who uses more exclamation marks than people on a boat that's capsizing)
I hold no illusions, the triple exclamation marks about the coffee are indicative of which he treasured the most! The man has priorities. ;) This is a piece of muslin I sent him - I personalized his quilt, he personalized mine! Heaven!
One more. Not strictly quilt related, but my favourite of the bunch because, well, Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo...
Thanks for listening.
xx whimsy
-- Edited by whimsyfox on Thursday 25th of July 2013 07:15:57 PM
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
I thought I’d share a little bit about my experience and my process.
The SHOW NO MERCY quilt, as it’s known, is comprised of basically 3 parts in the front. First I scaled the picture of the poster to exactly 24 inches wide. Then I cut out the letters using my electronic paper/fabric cutter. It’s like a printer, but instead of a printing head it has a pivoting blade. I isolated the letters in Photoshop, imported them to the special printer software, and cut. (a few pictures further down illustrate this) I fused the letters onto the rectangular "blood" fabric. Next I flipped the image and printed out a bunch of “templates”. Using a technique called paper piecing I sewed strips of fabric on the backsides of the templates to create the sunburst background.
In this picture you can see my paper true to size paper reference, the in-progress background, and the cut letters.
Then there's Hal. Oh Hal. I isolated just the black face portions to cut out in the electronic cutter, you can see pictures below. The rest I did the old fashioned way. Many repetitive but happy hours were spent re-watching Being Human episodes as I printed out more paper templates, put fusible on fabric, temporarily glued them to the backs of the templates and manually cut the shapes out.
In these pictues you can see most of the pieces cut out, and then assembled like a puzzle. I do believe Hal would approve. Hal could easily be a quilter! (he would stick to the old fashioned way of cutting, obviously)
I fused Hal onto the background, sewed the rectangular piece to the bottom, added the borders, sandwiched together the top, batting and backing (which is the domino fabric I designed and special ordered). Then I machine quilted it (both straight line and free motion), hand bound it and hand sewed the label on. TA-DA! If memory serves, start to finish was about 3 weeks.
Though I call it the SHOW NO MERCY quilt, technically it’s named Lord Hal/Just Hal as you can see on the hand embroidered label. "Embroidery - focus and care is a wonderful form of self control" I named it this because the front is bad Lord Hal, in the suit, with the black and red; but the back you can see good Hal in tans and blues and I used a picture from him in the cafe to figure out how to quilt his hair.
And speaking of Hal’s hair... this was the first time I free-motioned quilted hair. I was hesitant at first that I would ruin it, but it turned out to be brilliant fun, my favourite part of the whole process. Though it was challenging quilting through all the overlapping layers at the edges of the hair - I manage to break 5 machine needles in the process!
And this is a picture of me in action. (in one of my stripey shirts, it’s actually an obsession of mine). What I love about this shot is that you can see his face on my computer as I’m quilting it. This project was an absolute pleasure to do - challenging and rewarding. It made me very happy to send something I made with my talent, something that I poured my time and care into, to a man whose talent I greatly admire.
Phew, rambly much? Thanks for letting me share. Next I shall post what you really want to see - the photos and video of Damien receiving my gift.
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
I've seen the pics before and the quilt's looked amazing, but I've not seen the back before - how brilliant is that? And how much work you put into it as well...you're so talented, I really wouldn't have known where to start!
I have been so looking forward to hearing all about the creation of your fabulous 'Show No Mercy' quilt Whimsy! and your posts have showcased it beautifully!
It truly is an absolutely genius and truly brilliant piece of quilting, your dedication both to it and to Damien/Hal/Being Human are a joy to behold!
Even though we have seen the pics before on twitter, it is lovely to see them all together like this and read the whole story!
I love the backing almost as much as the "gorgeous b*****d" on the front - got a big thing about dominoes you see
Its a delightful but absolutely no surprise that Damien and the Being Human peeps loved your work, so glad you had that response.
You forgot one thing though.. Damien's thoughtful thank you note!
Thank you so much for sharing on the forum, it's an honour.
Awww whimsy this post made me get all emotional. I love the fact that you have a picture of you touching the message label followed by a picture of damien touching it. It's so symbolic.
Ok now I'm getting totes emosh, I love reading the entire story of the quilt and how it was made. Isn't it a wonderful thing that fellow bloggers were able to deliver your gift to damien, such a close and wonderful fandom to be a part of. Thank you for posting this xxxx
__________________
Sooner or later, we all go back to being the monsters we truly are!
Ah Whimsy! I loved reading this! Even though I held the quilt myself, I didn't notice all the attention to detail on the back, like the good Hal and the layout of the dominos. Bad Hal's hair was so thick and strokeable - just like *cough* Hal's himself.
I love all the photos too. It was like reading one of those "How to.." craft books that have all those step by step illustations. That template part looked very intricate.
I was there when Damien was showing the quilt off to his Being Human buddies. Matt was with me too. We were sitting at a table behind them.
On the Saturday he'd told us that there was a room in the Royal Court where he could keep all the gifts we'd given him, so he didn't need to take them all home on one day. He was sitting at the table then ran upstairs and came back with the quilt in the One Direction gift bag. They were chatting for a while and then he showed them the quilt. There was Toby, Kate Bracken, Sarah Dollard, Laura Cotton and her fiance (BH script writer Mark Williams), BH producer Polly Buckle, director Daniel O'Hara. I recognise that blonde woman next to Damien in that photo below taken by Laura Cotton but I don't know who she is. She was chatting to Polly and I think she was part of the production team. There was another guy there too, but I did not recognise him either.
__________________
~Hal Yorke is in my dreams. Can't wait to go to bed!~
Thank You Laura for that info. I'll go amend my writeup.
Yes, there's all sorts of symbolism in the quilt.
On the front, the red fabric in the sunburst portion has a slight silvery shimmer. Because bad Hal is classy, urbane. Notice the fabric the words are on is a mottled red? It symbolizes blood. I used real suiting material for his suit, you can feel the difference of the fabric.
On the back, the dominos are nice and tidy groups as Hal would like (though I confess I thought about rearranging the order from the original picture I found but for times sake I didn't) but the groupings aren't all lined up because he struggles to maintain that order. The background of the domino fabric is actually a picture of tweed fabric. Not sure that shows through since it was printed onto the regular cotton, but I know it's meant to be tweed.
But most importantly, I the colourings as I mentioned before, darks on front but the flip side it's good Hal colours. And the fact that he's on the back, outlined, each side shadows/mirrors the other.
Yeah, I think too much...
And his hair! It's not like I imagine stroking it while I quilted it, that would be weird! I do have a picture of @saemaysae stroking the hair on the one I made for myself. And then there's the fact that I have one... and it's quite strokable... *ahem*
I tried not to get too "technical", but wanted to share enough that you got a bigger picture into how it was done.
Glad you enjoyed my writeup.
__________________
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
Thank You domino! I know I kept telling you I'd get around to doing the write up. I wish I'd gotten around to it sooner!
I really loved working on it and am so happy so many people, including an army of bloggers, got to see and touch it in person. (cuz for a quilter, one of the pleasures of working with fabric is just the tactile feel of it. I refer you to my comment to Laura on the hair...)
I thought of you when I was designing the dominos! I have scraps of the fabric... might be big enough pieces to make a headscarf or something something something. I'm getting to be an expert at sending stuff to England...
Oh and far be it for me to correct you, but I believe the guy on the front of the quilt is a "Good Looking B*****d"! And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.
Oh, yes you are right, I forgot my lovely messages. I figured since I'd posted them earlier in the week it would be overkill, but no, they belong here too! Complete the story.
Thank you so much for letting me ramble (as usual) and share all of it here. I thought about posting it on a wordpress blog or just on tumblr, but I felt that since this site was the one that helped spark my interest in making this project in the first place, and its dedicated to the man that my quilt is dedicated to, this is where my writeup belongs.
xxx whimsy
__________________
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
Whimsy this is so impressive! Already seen a couple of photos of it on your twitter, but its fascinating to see how you actually put it together (I'm a bit of an art nerd...). Love the domino detailing on the back, very cool!
Lovely to hear the story behind it all and the responses you got from Damien and the other Being Human crew
Thank You domino! I know I kept telling you I'd get around to doing the write up. I wish I'd gotten around to it sooner!
I really loved working on it and am so happy so many people, including an army of bloggers, got to see and touch it in person. (cuz for a quilter, one of the pleasures of working with fabric is just the tactile feel of it. I refer you to my comment to Laura on the hair...)
I thought of you when I was designing the dominos! I have scraps of the fabric... might be big enough pieces to make a headscarf or something something something. I'm getting to be an expert at sending stuff to England...
Oh and far be it for me to correct you, but I believe the guy on the front of the quilt is a "Good Looking B*****d"! And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.
Oh, yes you are right, I forgot my lovely messages. I figured since I'd posted them earlier in the week it would be overkill, but no, they belong here too! Complete the story.
Thank you so much for letting me ramble (as usual) and share all of it here. I thought about posting it on a wordpress blog or just on tumblr, but I felt that since this site was the one that helped spark my interest in making this project in the first place, and its dedicated to the man that my quilt is dedicated to, this is where my writeup belongs.
xxx whimsy
it does look very tactile Iris, and wonderful quality, you are clearly an expert quilter! as you know I would have done anyhing to have been able to be there too.
aw, I am touched! I must confess to being obsessed with the double one domino ever since we first saw Hal twirling it in series 4...if i were to have a tattoo, tht is what is would be. [ - | - ]
Oh yes, lol! ahem...far be it for me to put the word gorgeous in that good looking b*****ds mouth!
Thanks for posting this, whimsy. I enjoy a bit of craftiness, but generally lack concentration, patience and attention to detail. My husband tactfully describes my handiwork as 'rustic'! It's brilliant to see how it should be done - and the end product was absolutely beautiful. Pictures really don't do it justice........I was lucky enough to be sitting next to Shoe in the cafe when she showed it off to everybody - so I got to give it a little stroke (!?!) and can confirm that it is as tactile as it is beautiful.
Thanks everyone for all the kind words and encouragement. I've never done a "person" on a quilt before and I was really nervous about it. The S4E7 propaganda poster lended itself so well for it though. I'm really glad I took the plunge. It was a crazy few weeks getting it done, that's for sure. I have a few more in-progress photos I might post another time if anyone is interested. :)
__________________
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
I'd love to see any additional photos of the process that you went through to make the quilt, especially now that we know there were multiple quilts being made. You are so brilliant, and generous with your time and talents! Thanks for posting the story here.
__________________
He'd have told me to join him, and I would. - still true!
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
So pleased to see this topic bumped up again whimsy, your quilt is a totally exquisite work of art, truly it is. the whole story around it is amazing too.
Whimsy, I am I awe! Not just of the amazing execution of the design itself but of the design, the thought behind it, etc. Now that I know the symbology of the quilt, both back and front, it is like reading a good book lots of layers in the plot and sub plot. Thank you so much for sharing, it is amazing.
I am amazed it took only three weeks. I'll bet that included some nighttime piecing! I did a quilting course lasting one week at An Grianan when I lived in Ireland. It was a "Quilt in a Day" (ha!) Item that took a full five days to complete and that included staying up until two in the morning on a couple of occasions. We had pre-washed cloth, patterns and a wonderful American woman to teach us, so really we had it easy.
I just take my hat off to you. The photos of the journey you took making the quilt are a delight and I really love the back. This will have pride of place on Damien's wall and be something he can hand down to future generations.
Ellie, been meaning to say thanks for the lovely comments. Gives me warm fuzzies. And YAY for having some quilty experience!
Yes, it was a CRAZY no-sleep 3 weeks! The second copy took 6 months and the third sat around half done for over a year! I can't believe I got his done so fast! When I met Damien in March 2014, I asked and he said he had it in a closet because he'd just moved. I certainly hope it's hanging up in his house somewhere by now. It would be so cool if he has a corner or wall (eventually a room...) where he keeps memorabilia from his characters. Makes me happy to imagine it that way.
__________________
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
The time and effort that must have gone in making the quilt is astounding. I can barely sew a button on. I always bow down to anyone who can hand make something from scratch...but with you, well I would give a standing ovation.
-- Edited by Dingleannie on Saturday 10th of November 2018 07:43:36 PM
__________________
"It’s not dissatisfaction, it’s a feeling more akin to having been born in captivity..the seeping realisation that your dreams and ambitions are just too big, too rich for this domestic world”
papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
his hair! It's not like I imagine stroking it while I quilted it, that would be weird! 
I do have a picture of @saemaysae stroking the hair on the one I made for myself. And then there's the fact that I have one... and it's quite strokable... *ahem*
as you know I would have done anyhing to have been able to be there too. 
And YAY for having some quilty experience!
