Geek Crafts: My Doctor Who Quilt Adventure

I'm going to start off by saying I am SO not a quilter.  This is literally the third quilt I've ever made in the 7 years I've been sewing.  It may be the last.  I'd be proud to retire on this one though - it's my Doctor Who Quilt!

I made this quilt as a donation for my oldest son's school's fundraising auction.  The school was really stumping for parents to donate cash & goods for this one.  With some pricey remodeling going on at the Sew Can Do house right now, I couldn't afford to donate a typical big ticket item.  I thought about what I could make that might get the auction paddles waving and remembered there were some serious Doctor Who fans amongst the school group.  So my crafty wheels got turning and I put together a design plan for a Whovian-themed quilt.

I got a bunch of fun Doctor Who cotton prints to make my ideal design.  Had to have Daleks and the Tardis:

and not just one or two fabrics either. I wanted this to have the ultimate fan experience so I got lots of designs to coordinate (I actually bought too much - big surprise- so I'm selling the rest in my shop here):

And of course the quilt design itself had to have a Doctor Who vibe, so I did an anvil pattern to look like the Doctor's bow-tie in the main logo and two Tardis prints:

I went with a grey Doctor Who crackle print for my background/filler fabric, so it would add even more geekery, but not take away from the central design or seem to crazy busy:

Since I'm beyond unskilled in quilt design & assembly it made total sense to not use any instructions and just wing it with a general design idea, right? Insert extremely sarcastic tone here.  Yeah, I was a dumbo and despite always telling myself not to do this sort of thing, I tend to do exactly that sort of thing and then wonder why I feel stressed out.  Why do I never learn?!?

I drafted up a general plan on graph paper and mapped out my dimensions and which fabrics went where and calculated like crazy to figure out what I needed and how to cut it all out.  I did a 6 inch square block pattern in a finished lap size of 54 inches wide by 66 inches high.  Perfect for cuddling with while watching the show;)  I labeled each row while I was cutting to keep things straight.  

Things getting real with this quilting business

I did a solid blue back that wrapped around to the front to make a border and did some mitered corners.  This worked well with wrangling my batting in the middle.  I did top stitching around the borders and around the three bow ties.  I didn't have it in me to do more quilting at that point. 

Of course I did have to add a little hand made tag to the back: 

The quilt took what seemed like forever (projects tend to do that when you only work on them a bit at a time because daily life keeps interrupting), but in the end it turned out as I'd imagined it.  The best part was the winning bid was almost $200, so I was proud that my quilt contribution did pretty well.  

Would I want to make a bunch of these?  Um...no.  Am I glad my big kid will be returning to homeschooling in the Fall so we don't have to do stuff like this next year?  Heck yes! Quilting together 80 squares just about sent me over the edge.  I've got mad respect for all the serious quilters out there who love to do this sort of thing.  I did take photos while I worked, so if anyone else wants to be crazy and make one I have the potential to do tutorial for it.  Once I recover from doing the actual project that is;)   

Geek Craft Tutorial: Star Trek Oven Mitts

It's been a while since I've done some geek-themed crafting, but I'm back in action now and starting off a new month with this project: Trekkie Oven Mitts.

They're full insulated, have easy slip-on hand pockets and of course, the full Star Trek character effect:

My Dad is a huge Star Trek The Next Generation fan, so when I stumbled across these fabrics I couldn't resist buying them.  He does a lot of grilling and oven cooking, so new mitts seemed right up his street.  This print's got the classic catch phrase for Captain Picard and his Number One, Will Riker:

and this awesome print had the full cast:

FYI, these oven mitts could be done in any motif/print, so if you're not a Trekkie or sci-fi fan, they'll work just as well with any other theme.

Here's how to make them....

Materials:

- Two 1/2 yards of cotton fabric (these Star Trek prints are by Camelot Fabrics) 
- 1/4 yard Insul-Bright

- 1/4 yard Cotton batting

- Shears/rotary cutter, pinking shears

- Heavy duty needle + hand sewing needle

- Small clips/clothespins

- Paper & pencil

- Optional: walking foot

I started by drafting a basic pattern.  I folded a piece of paper and cut it to be 4 inches wide by 11 1/2 inches high.  I rounded the top corner using a plate about 2 1/2 inches from the top.  Opened it up and oven mitt pattern was now ready.

I cut out pairs from both fabrics, batting and insulating fleece. 

For the hand pocket, I also cut an extra pair from the Star Trek TNG Badges in Black, but made each 2 1/2 inches shorter and cut them with the fabric folded, so that the fold is the straight bottom (this makes for super easy pockets):

Now it's time to layer all the bits together:

Since this is a pretty thick stack, I used clips all the way around instead of pinning:

I stitched all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving a several inch gap on one side for turning.  I highly recommend using a walking foot when sewing this many layers.  It really keeps the fabrics from shifting.

I trimmed the seam allowances with pinking shears.  It's quicker and just as effective as clipping into curves and there's no danger you'll clip through your seam:

Then I turned each one right side out and slipstitched the openings closed by hand.  These were a great birthday surprise gift and are sure to get my dad's cooking to boldly go where no one has gone before.  Yes, that was super corny, but I couldn't resist!  Now, I'm feeling the geek craft vibe again, it's time to think up some other geektastic projects...