About a month ago I saw this pattern on
quirky granola girl's blog and knew I needed to make it for my husband as a May the 4th (...be with you...get it? It's Star Wars day!) gift.
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#patchworkdeathstar for those on IG (I'm @quiltsnfeathers). |
Plus I've been quilting for about 5 years now and still have not made him a quilt! I've hemmed a lot of pants, taken in shirts, patched holes... And made a quilt for our bed (and have another one planned for later this year as a collaborative project with him). But making a quilt just for him is something that's been on my list for a while.
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Quilting detail. |
Just as I was starting to cut and baste fabrics to the paper pieces (it is an English paper piecing pattern--my first ever!), I got a package from my friend
Ashley-which included some new grey fabrics and scraps from the
quilt she was making for her husband. That awesome piece in the Superlaser Focus Lens (haha yeah I had to go look up the name for that circular section) is from her! It was
perfect timing, and definitely the best fabric for that piece! Thank you, Ashley!
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Have I ever mentioned that my husband has a masters in applied math and works as an analyst? Fabric with mathy-geekery just had to be in this quilt! |
My friend
Jessica at Quilty Habit made her husband
a quilt this year too (it must be a good year for husbands, haha) and has a
list of tips on making a surprise quilt for someone you live with. I found it very encouraging, and I'm happy to say that although I have a talkative 4 year old that doesn't forget
anything, and I spent a whole month making this during weekday nap times, it was a complete surprise to my husband! I was super sneaky, keeping all the pattern pieces and fabric in boring bins, throwing out trash right away, and I didn't take
any process posts because he would probably have seen them on my phone or camera over the course of a month! And then
this pillow patchworkdeathstar showed up in my FB feed twice last week and I had to hide it so my husband wouldn't see someone's elses either!
I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of death stars trying to get the shading and the quilting right.
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Black on black for subtle texture. |
I quilted it with Aurifil #2605 on the death star and black (#2692) on the border. I used #2740 in the bobbin to match the back. The binding and hanging corners are Kona Charcoal and the backing is from Joann's.
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Finished size is 11.5" x 11.5". |
A few notes on
the pattern:
--This was my first english paper piecing and I found the directions fairly easy to follow.
--I used my machine to sew the pieces together using a narrow zig zag stitch. I wanted to save time and knew the stitches wouldn't take away from the industrial look of the death star.
--The background (black) piece from the pattern did not fit my death star pieces. If you make the pattern I suggest lining up your death star halves on your background paper pieces and tracing the actual size/shape of your death star, cutting the new line and then carry on with cutting fabric and basting (that's what I had to do).
I presented it to my husband first thing this morning and he was delighted! I think he's planning to hang it up in his office. :-)
P.S. My next post is my 200th!
And it will be my 3rd blogaversary!
And it will be part of the
Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! So it's gonna be big, and hopefully awesome!