Tardis Quilt!

I am so excited to share all these pictures! I worked on this birthday gift for Claire for months. And I kept it a big secret the whole time. No pictures on Facebook or Instagram or anything... until now!

Ta Da!

If you're a fan of the BBC tv series, Doctor Who, you know this is a Tardis! That's the vehicle the Doctor uses to travel through time and space. Claire is a huge fan! And she's not alone. There is a whole world of Whovians who love all things related to the Doctor.

I used a pattern from Hunter's Design Studio. I haven't followed a pattern in so long! Yikes! All that measuring, managing straight of grain and seam allowances nearly fried my eyes and brain. But, it was definitely good to exercise those technical skills. 

It was also so much bigger than what I usually make! I had to move to the dining room table.

Simple gift wrapping job.

Happy happy birthday girl!

More details. I ordered specially designed fabric from Spoonflower for the "Police Box" sign at the top and the "Pull to Open" panel on the door. That worked fine.

But frankly, the black is just not black enough and there are some tiny white specks that were in the fabric when it arrived. (See the dot between the O and L?) Not a big deal, but if I were making another Tardis quilt, I'd do that top sign panel differently. (But I am NEVER making another Tardis quilt.) By the way, this is a problem with Spoonflower, not with the designer. Spoonflower admits their "black" just really isn't.

I chose pretty simple fabrics knowing Claire would want the Tardis to look like the Tardis!

This panels looks awesome. Totally authentic.

After looking at some other Tardis quilts on Pinterest, I decided to quilt some phrases in Gallifreyan on the other five door panels. Gallifreyan is the language of Doctor Who. This required lots of research and sketching.

If you're a obsessed fan, you may wish to try your hand at translating these panels. (Claire tells me there are a few small corrections to be made. So, it will need to go under the needle again sometime soon.)

I chose a starry sky fabric for the backing.

I had a super fun time with the quilting. I was inspired by some free motion quilting tutorials from Lori Kennedy, especially her Swirls and Twirls motif.

I also quilted her name along one of the strips.

Claire is interested in so many cool things and it was such fun to celebrate one of those interests with this gift!

She really does love it! Yeah!