DK Quilt Guild: A place for quilters to gather, share ideas, projects, and to make the world a better place, one quilt at a time. Join us and share your thoughts, projects, questions, and tips. Quilters here are at many different levels of skill. Beginners and non-quilters are welcome, too!
In 1996, we adopted our daughter Julia in China. See how cute?
Now she is getting ready to go to college. See how beautiful?
I made two quick wholecloth baby quilts to take to China to wrap her in. Then, with the demands of parenthood, I made no other quilts for her. Until now.
My initial offer to make her a dorm room quilt has turned into things I had not anticipated -- a new view of my daughter and our relationship, and a challenge to myself to push my quilting skills in new directions.
Follow me below the orange bobbin tangle to learn more.
I spent several days on Electric Quilt 7 coming up with a quick but pleasing design using the best batiks from my stash. Lots of pink too as that is Julia's favorite color.
Rejected! Too random, too swirly. Well, what do you want? Oh, something regular and organized. Like that, and she pointed to a nine patch design. I cringed. I had promised myself I would never ever make a nine patch again. I really had to push the limits of my sewing and quilting skills. I also realized that I had designed that batik quilt for myself, not for the young woman that Julia is.
Since Julia is going to be an engineer, I suggested a quilt with a mathematical theme -- Fibonacci series, an illustrated proof of the Pythagorean theorem, pi. She looked at examples and turned them all down.
Then she brightened. "I want a TARDIS quilt!"
Huh? But I know nothing about Doctor Who or the TARDIS. You will have to help me out. I need dimensions, colors, etc.
"It's all on the internet. Just look it up." And off she went.
I gulped and turned to the Internet Tubes. And by George, it was all there!
FYI, the TARDIS is a time travel device from the Doctor Who TV program. According to fan websites, the proper color is Pantone 2955C. That helped immensely in fabric shopping. And that level of fannish detail boded well for help with measurements. I then quickly found the dimensions and instructions for building a full size TARDIS online, and realized that I needn't do anything else to work out a pattern as I could use that!
And then I was tempted by the devil!! Cheater cloth!!
http://www.spoonflower.com/...
I resisted the cheater cloth, but found the Police Call Box, St. John's Hospital logo, and the Free for Public Use sign all on Spoonflower.
I now have all the fabric for this project. I have the "pattern". I have the plan to turn the irregular shape of the TARDIS into a rectangular quilt. I have a deadline of August 1. But....
PROJECT DERAILMENT ALERT!
Julia will be getting her quilt a bit later than expected!
My husband had to take a job out of state three years ago because of the economy. He was living in a boarding house and coming home once or twice a month. I found out on Thursday that finally, finally he has found a job in the Atlanta area and is moving home for good in three weeks!! I've got to drop everything and focus on his move home! The poor man has missed almost all of Julia's high school years, but at least he will have a month at home with her before she leaves for college.
Please stay tuned. My next installment, which I hope will be in late July if there is an opening on the DK Quilt list, will be on construction. I plan to learn and do "quilt as you go" for two reasons. I want the back of the quilt to look like the back of the TARDIS and expect to have to hand baste and work in small sections to keep the quilting as accurate on both sides as possible. I will also be adding two "doors" to the quilt -- one for the phone behind the Free for Public Use sign, and one for the door that allows entrance to the TARDIS. I won't attempt to create the control room within, but it will definitely be "bigger inside". I will also be trying applique with some three dimension effects for the first time.
Whooo hoooo!
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After doing quite well with scheduling for awhile, there are now lots of open dates. Would you like to write a future DK Quilt Guild diary? Please join in! Please volunteer within the comments. Thanks
The schedule:
6/23 -- leu2500
6/30 -- leu2500
7/07 -- OPEN
7/14 -- OPEN
7/21 -- OPEN
7/28 -- madmommy