Starting Out!

I've always been a crafty person and I've also always been a nerdy person. Over the years, my nerdiness has evolved and grown to include many genres and fandoms. I have always been attracted to fantasy and science fiction with the former being my primary love, starting with Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia and growing to include various fantasy novels, movies, and television shows. As I got older, I discovered I also loved Star Trek and Star Wars. When new shows were introduced, of course I had to watch them. I can now say that not only am I fan of Star Trek, Star Wars and Harry Potter, but also Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and many more. I decided to express my love for my many passions by making a quilt, incorporating another thing I love which is crafts and projects. I have made scrapbooks and knitted scarves and the like, but I have never undertaken a project so big or involved as this. I sort of jumped in with very little embroidery, applique, or quilting skills and decided to just see what happened. The remainder of this blog will be to keep you apprised of my progress and hopefully share some things that I have learned with anyone who cares to read this. I wish that I had everything in one place when I was doing research on how to best approach my quilt. I will post a few introductory things that I have learned and give links to some great resources that I have found before I get into the real "meat" of my quilting progress!

The fandoms that I chose to be represented in my quilt are as follows:
1.) Harry Potter
2.) Lord of the Rings
3.) The Chronicles of Narnia
4.) Game of Thrones
5.) Battlestar Galactica
6.) Stargate
7.) Doctor Who
8.) Sherlock
9.) Star Wars
10.) Star Trek
11.) Superheros

Each patch of my quilt is roughly 8 x 8 inches, with the final product being 56 x 72 inches, which is 7 patches across and 9 patches down. It will end up being slightly smaller due to the fact that I will lose some width and length when I sew all of the patches together.

This quilt is incredibly unique and I would be surprised to see another one like it out there when it is completed. Yes there are quilts dedicated to various themes, some of which are listed above, however, I doubt there is any one quilt out there with as many various themes as mine. Also my approach may be different that more experienced quilters and I may not have everything right but it is the way I chose to do it and hopefully it will turn out the way I have envisioned it to.

There are a few things I would like to mention to anyone planning on making a quilt, doing embroidery, or fabric applique. First off, if you decide to make a quilt, I would plan out precisely what you want first, your color scheme, etc. I went a little willy nilly with my fabric choices and my quilt is going to be a rainbow of colors! This is fine with me because I am a tad ecclectic and also a little eccentric. However, if you want a cohesive color scheme, I would spend a little time at your local fabric/craft store to see the multitude of options available to you and plan out your color scheme if you don't want your quilt to have that ADD look the way mine does!

A word of warning: if you have never quilted before and do not have basic supplies handy, your project could become very costly very quickly. So please keep this in mind before beginning a big project like this. If you are starting from scratch and know some crafty people who may have extra supplies, you could ask to borrow some from them. You can use old clothes as fabric (I'll get to that process later) instead of buying fabric that can get costly!

Next Post: Basic supplies I recommend to get started on your own project.