Tardis Pillow: Always Learning

So I made a tardis pillow. A tardis, for those non-Whovians, is Doctor Who's space ship. Space/time ship? Whatever. It is a police box from Britain and Trillium Quilts put together a HUGE paper pieced Doctor Who-themed quilt for her son and shared her patterns free on Craftsy. Brilliant, generous woman.

It came together much easier than I could have hoped, especially since I am not a paper piecing fan. Except I was disappointed that the curve of the pillow distorts the shape of the tardis and ruins the 3D look. It works better as a flat quilt block, I think.

I like the fabric I chose for the timey-wimey-outerspace- a Tula Pink print.

I used a tone on tone Pearl Bracelet print in dark grey for the back.

All those tiny seams look so much more impressive from the back!

I wasn't 100% thrilled with the end result. My hubby said it looked great and was sure his coworker would love it (it was a thank you gift for lending us all of his Doctor Who DVDs). The coworker did love it so that is a win. And here are some things I learned for in the future:

• paper piecing can be totally worth it
• some blocks don't work well for pillows because of the curvature of the pillow
• use dark thread when piecing dark fabric to dark fabric, otherwise any stretch to the seam shows the light coloured thread- my laziness about switching out thread bit me in the butt on this one
• careful pinning with tiny pins is key, but pinning it from the front while looking how it will fit together is even better (I got that tip from my quilty friend C)

And I will paper piece again. But only if the outcome will be really worth it to me!

Lynn

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday!