Pat Pat Pat

That's the sound of me patting myself on the back. I am feeling pretty pleased with myself right now...

In the course of a week, I created a 60x80 quilt top and pieced backing - from a photograph and a concept - with no pattern or cutting dimensions to follow, writing my own instructions as I went along.  It tested my math skills, tried my patience, and stretched my horizons.

It involved stenciling - (for the first time)

It involved a lot of mitered corners - (for the first time)

It involved some "knitting" of fabric into a specific color selection and sequence (Tom Baker fans will understand)

It involved 3 weekend afternoons, and 3 weeknights - mixed in with the full time job, Scouts, Lions Club, bowling,  house renovations, laundry, pattern testing for something else, a bit of knitting and the normal number of hours of sleep.

The best part was that the Munchkin liked spending the weekend hours upstairs with me -we watched some holiday specials and he pulled out the perler beads to work on some of his own projects while I sewed.   He also modeled for me so you could get an idea of the scale of this project.  This picture was before the final side and top pieces were added - and the quilt outgrew my design wall.

 ... now to get this puppy quilted up!
 

Where's my sonic screwdriver when I need it?

I'm making progress - the doors are done - the sides are framed in, and the TARDIS base is on.  I decided to do one more drop shadow around the entire door to frame it in - so had a run of very very long and very very narrow pieces to put on.  The good news is that I am getting better on my mitered corners and didn't have to unsew any of them.

The next step is the top of the TARDIS, which will involve either paint, stencil or applique to do some lettering - not sure which route I am going to take just yet.

I did swap out one fabric in my master plan.  I had kind of a peachy marble fabric for the backgrounds - but it just wasn't doing it for me.   I like the fabric and will find a use for it eventually - but it just was not right for this project.  That's one of the pitfalls of buying fabrics online - sometimes no matter how good the images it is hard to tell how it is going to play in person.

Luckily in my stash I had this kind of beige mottled fabric with white stars all over it.  It seemed to fit the overall theme of this quilt without detracting from the TARDIS, and with 2 yards to work with, I think I will have plenty to finish up the sides.

Current measurements - without the top portion of the TARDIS, are 40 x 59.5


 

TARDIS progress

I am working on this quilt as a commission for someone.  There are lots of versions of a TARDIS quilt out there but  no clear tutorials out that I have found that I like, so I am determining my methods and dimensions as I go along.   (a tutorial WILL follow once I am done)

Never fear -it IS bigger on the inside!! :-)

 I need to make some measurements before I move on to my next step -this is some of my progress.  I am a bit further along - but the camera is upstairs and I am curled up on the couch.