Oh, hello there! Nice to see someone’s still checking in here occasionally.

This Christmas we had three special quilts to make. Although we planned to make quilt gifts for a couple of months before the holiday, procrastination raised it ugly head as usual and Mom and I didn’t get started until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Yep, par for the course.

I wanted to make something special for my nephew, Austin, and had contemplated somehow incorporating his college colors (blue and yellow) and logo somehow, but midway through designing it another idea popped into my head and I ran with it. He’s a fan of Doctor Who (as am I). The colors reminded me of the night sky. What if I did an off kilter setting of various sized star blocks, with one little TARDIS floating in the middle? My first attempt was nice, but when I replaced the orange with green and pumped up the turquoise, it clicked. I fell in love with the quilt and decided that I could make it happen in three weeks. Yeah, this:

Not asking too much, hmmm?

Normally, I would have help from my mom, but at the same time I was working on this, she turned out two more Christmas quilts. They’re both already wrapped, so I’ll have to share photos after we open gifts.

Meanwhile, I sewed and sewed and sewed – 110 hours in 3 weeks. I used this pattern from Trillium Design for the TARDIS (indicated in the design above by the blue rectangle), but I shrank it from 12″ to 8″ so I could fit it into the right space. I believe there are 79 piece in the TARDIS block alone.  Four blocks were paper pieced in addition to the TARDIS, and I used templates for one – can you guess which?

Sunday night I finished the top. Tomorrow Mom will put it on the frame and I’ll quilt it when I get home. As much as I’d love to do something really spectacular, the reality is I don’t have the skill and I need to get it done. I’m planning on an allover swirl pattern. Wish me luck. I also need to find the perfect name for this quilt. Any suggestions?