Justin’s Door Blanket/Quilt

My nephew Justin lives in Minnesota.  Where it can be very cold.  The door at his home is metal and not well insulated.  He tried all the various products for sealing the door.  But it’s still cold.  He remembered when he was in college in Utah, another place it gets cold, he had hung a sleeping bag over a door to help insulate it.  But I don’t think his wife would appreciate a sleeping bag over her door.  Plus how would you get out?

Justin drew up some plans to create what he called a door blanket.  One with magnets, so it would stick to the door.  That way you can open the door without removing the blanket.  Being that he is a non sewer and doesn’t own any sewing notions what so ever, he did the next best thing.  Call Auntie Cathy.  She has a longarm (or that big machine as he called it) and can quilt a door blanket for me.

I live in New England, so we couldn’t really shop together for what he needed.  He sent me his specs for the size and fabrics he thought would work.   I purchase some chocolate-brown micro-suede polyester fabric, black out drapery liner and some Insul Bright batting.  He has some high power magnets he could use to hold his blanket to the door.

I quilted the diamond pattern he wanted.  I have a sashiko quilting template that worked great for the diamonds.  First I needed to mark out a grid.  There are registration marks on the template that correspond to a 1 1/2″ grid.  I had a stencil made by the same company that makes the template.  Once the grid was marked, I quilted the diamond pattern.

Once I finished quilting and binding the blanket, I needed to make a slit for the door knobs.  I created a very large bound button hole.  Then attached a strap with velcro to keep the hole closed around the door knob and dead bolt.   Then I attached pockets on the back for the magnets.

When I first took it off the longarm frame, Sport had to test it out.  The diamond quilting is more visible on the back.

I shipped it off to Justin via USPS.  He got it in 2 days.  Here is the finished product on his door.  He said it feels warmer.  But he has to do a temperature test.

It was a fun yet different project.

C