[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.  

[Quilt #4] [Quilt #5] Space Quilts. Masterpieces, for My Little Misters, Part 1

As a family, we're into space stuff.  Included in the Top Ten List of most awesome things I have experienced would be the crazy Easter Sunday we left after church to drive down to Titusville, Florida, arriving after 2 in the morning and laying out with a crowd under the stars while we waited, and followed the countdown, and saw the launch of STS-131, Discovery.  Night launch.  Amazing.  I get tears in my eyes recalling it, and our young sons' reaction to it.

That was our first close-up launch experience, and we were addicted.  We followed along at home on NASA tv and online and with three more drive-downs we were able to see 2 more launches live and in person, including the very last.  And for a couple of years, all our boys could talk about was space shuttles and rockets and wanting to be astronauts.  

And over a full year I looked at space-themed fabric online and gradually made purchases.  Only the best for my boys, but after seeing all that beautiful, fine fabric together in one place, I was completely intimidated by what to do next.  I relied on what we were taught in Landscape Architecture school: when you're stumped, look at pictures, lots of them, until you get excited and find inspiration and direction again.  And they taught us that before the internet!

I still had no idea what I was doing as far as quilt design goes, but one of the fabric lines I'd chosen was printed with actual NASA photos, so I was working with incorporating images that were roughly 10" square.  I scoured the internet for images of quilts that included square patches of fabric without being too static in their layout.  I knew I didn't want to simply frame and sash the images, I wanted movement and variety.  Finally I found this image, the blog from which it was taken being, unfortunately, no longer available:  

The varying sizes and shades of the blocks seems to make them appear and recede - like the fictional movie images of travelling through space.  I took some measurements from the photo, converted them to what they would proportionally be based on using 10" images, then printed out the above photo in black and white.  (Lots of landscape architecture drafting skills and tricks coming into play!)  From the black and white photo I was able to number the fabrics from light to dark, and when I laid out my space fabric collection from light to dark, I had almost exactly the same number of fabrics to work with.  Suddenly this quilt design process became as simple as mathematics and I was able to move forward confidently with my rotary cutter.  

Making 2 quilts at one time was certainly an undertaking.  Part of me wanted to move forward and do one start to finish, than the second start to finish, leaving the possibility for tweaking things and finding quicker/better ways with the first to use on the second.  I was honestly afraid, though, that the first one might be so overwhelming that I may not finish the second one, so I went with the production-line method.

I bought fabric during 2009 and 2010.  I started cutting early 2011 and worked very gradually on them until that Christmas.  I had hoped to have them finished before that Christmas, but I was trying to keep the project a secret, meaning I could only work on them late at night, and I only got as far as finishing the tops and pinning them up with backing and batting.  

That Christmas morning after all the presents were opened, I spread the unfinished quilts out on my bed and called the boys to come look.  My youngest was too young to realize what they were, but my oldest one gasped and jumped for joy.  It was a reaction more than I could have hoped for!  

[Quilt #3] By Request, from family

It was such an honor to be asked by my aunts and great-aunt to make a quilt for a shower gift for my cousin.  It was plenty frightening, too, as I'd only made 2 before and didn't feel ready to take on a commission, but I'm usually not one to turn family down!  My cousin had a little boy and was expecting her daughter and they wanted to give her a special quilt.  They sent me pictures of the nursery with freshly painted green walls, black furniture, and pink accents; and with all that in mind I went to Hobby Lobby.

I found a really fun group of fabrics that had all the right colors that would work nicely in the striped layout I wanted to try.  So far I'd only done squares, and so I was looking forward to trying something different.  I was also expecting the striped layout to be simpler to quilt and that turned out to be true, mostly.  I once again couldn't resist the urge to piece the back and learned why you must very carefully choose how you piece the back if you are wanting the quilting threads to match the fabric.  I changed bobbin thread about 756 times while quilting and it was so frustrating!  But, once again, it turned out quite pretty and everyone in the family was so proud and thrilled!  I was too, and so happy that something I'd made would be a part of a little girl's fond childhood memories.