Star Trek Baby Quilt - For the Boys Blog Hop

This is a quilt that I made several months ago, and have just been waiting for the right time to show it off.

I thought using it in the For the Boys Blog Hop from sewwequilt.com would be perfect timing.



Our two oldest kids are adopted in open adoptions, so that brings with it all kinds of interesting family connections.  This quilt was made for my daughter's newest half-brother.  Baby's dad (my daughter's birth dad) is a big Star Trek fan, so I thought we'd cater to his tastes on this one.  I emailed him and asked him who his favorite Star Trek character was...and his reply was Scotty.  Not knowing much about Star Trek, I did a little online research (mean...a 1 minute google image search to find out that Scotty wore a red uniform.

So I ordered 1 yard of the solid Kona Poppy red fabric and 1 yard of licensed Star Trek fabric (affiliate links).  I had a general idea in my head of keeping it really simple with just the solid color with the communicator symbol.  It wasn't until the night I sat down to actually put the quilt together that I discovered all the red-shirt jokes.  Remember...as geeky as our family is, I'm just not a Trekkie, so I didn't realize the red-shirts are always the expendable ones.

But I had the fabric, and his favorite character was Scotty, so I went ahead anyway.  The communicator symbol and outline are from black and gold Kona cotton scraps and machine appliqued on using Heat'n Bond Lite (affiliate link) adhesive and a tight zigzag stitch.  The engineering symbol on the communicator was too fine to for me to want to do applique...the whole thing would be pretty much been covered with the thread, so I used some freezer paper stencil for that part instead.

The real inspiration that I think really made the whole quilt come together came with the quilting.  I was having a hard time deciding what pattern to use to quilt it because I really didn't want the quilting to distract from the simplicity of the design.  Then at the last minute it hit me...I needed to do a bunch on converging lines to resemble the way the stars look when the star ships jump to light speed.  And then as one really last minute stroke of genius...I added a small USS Enterprise heading into the point of convergence.

I really think that's what brought the whole quilt together.

I used red thread for the quilting so that it wouldn't really show on the front, and I really liked the effect it ended up having on the back.

We mailed it off a bit before Katie's baby brother was born.  Her birth dad and his wife loved it, although with the Star Trek themed outfits we made to go along with it, but those will have to be saved for another blog post.

Know any Trekkies expecting a baby soon?  Even without being a Trekkie, I liked the design of this quilt that I wanted to make another one.  I have a yellow "command" uniform quilt all basted and ready for quilting.  I'll get it finished and listed in my shop eventually, but if you know someone who would like a Star Trek Themed baby quilt soon, email me and I could get it finished and we could talk about pricing.

Join in the rest of the For the Boys Blog Hop by checking out the other blogs posting today.

Jane's Quilting

Pieces By Polly

how Art you

Selina Quilts  

Upcycled Fabric

BQuiltin Studio

In The Boon Docks

Gemini Stitches

If you're visiting for the first time today from the Blog Hop, you might want to browse through my other quilting projects.  Most of them can be found here on my Pieces by Polly Quilt page.

I'm also currently hosting a Quilt-Along to make a Nativity in the Trees Quilt.  We're just starting, so there is plenty of time to join.

Please show my sponsors some love...

Julia Rotham Ride Bikes from Quilt Sandwich

Spring House/Queen Anne fabric from You Keep Me in Stitches

Dr. Seuss Fat Quarter Bundle from Sisters and Quilters

Modern Black and Gold Hexies Baby Quilt - Pieces by Polly

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