[Quilt #4] [Quilt #5] Space Quilts. Masterpieces for My Little Misters, Part 2

So I started 2012 with new resolve to finish these quilts, but also hatching the hope and plan for Quilt #6, and the space quilts got set aside for a bit.  This turned out to be a very good thing!  I'd started quilting the space quilts when I had to set them aside, but I learned so much with Quilt #6 that it ended up making the space quilts so much better.

I learned about batting.  So far, I've been very devoted to using 100% cotton, and so the space quilts were pinned to an all-natural cotton batting that stretched and tore easily.  With Quilt #6 I had reason to use Warm and White batting, though it is 12% something other than cotton, and I immediately saw the great benefit of that, especially since the space quilts had those large, almost-10" photo motifs!  I had started quilting the space quilts as close to 4" as possible, which meant quilting had to happen within the photo pieces and I was completely unhappy with how all that was turning out.  

So.  I learned to do what has to be done, even if it's going to make you cry over it the whole time.  I unquilted the first space quilt to replace the batting and start over.  I seam-ripped black stitching on black fabric.  It took a couple of weeks' worth of evening times.  But I did it, because I sincerely wanted these two to be the best quilts I would ever make.  

I unquilted the one, replaced the batting on both, repinned and stepped back to figure out the opportunities of only having to quilt 10" apart this time.  I'd also learned, from the process of Quilt #6, the value of a walking foot on your machine.  Though it was tricky to find one that fit my Kenmore-that's-older-than-me, the internet helped out spectacularly and I was no longer afraid to quilt around the squares, meeting at corners without puckers.  

I splurged on an online Craftsy class that was very helpful, "How to Quilt Large Quilts on a Small Machine," and watched parts of it over and over before setting to work.  By the time I started quilting these two babies for real, I was ready to get them done and I made hard, but precise work of it.  My shoulders and back ached from carefully pushing and pulling and turning those quilts under my sewing machine needle, but I got them done.  And I'd learned so much, and most of all,  I'd done the great and beautiful job that I had desperately hoped I could do.  I even hand-finished the binding!  And my boys absolutely love them.  In a way I'm glad I didn't finish that first Christmas, because all the work I did on them after that, the boys saw and experienced, and they know that these are something special, and they understand just a little bit more of how special each my little astronauts are to me.