Finished Rocket Me to the Moon

During my time off work last week, I finished the quilt for my son's bed, Rocket Me to the Moon.

I knew I wanted to quilt this one with something other than all-over loops, but it took a little while to decide exactly what I wanted to do. I started by outlining each square with a stitch about 1/4" inside the square on all sides. Then I was going to quilt the blue sashing only. But, then I thought it would be more fun to free-hand stars, planets, moon rocks, and an alien robot within each square instead.

Here are some moon rocks (free-motion pebbles).


Here are some stars.


The planet Saturn on the front.


And how it looks on the back.


And finally, a little alien robot on the front.


And back.


When I finished quilting all the squares, I almost left it at that, but then felt like the sashing was missing something. So, I quilted some wiggly lines vertically and horizontally along every sashing line. I like how it gives each square its own frame.


I bound the quilt in the same rocket wave fabric as the large squares on the quilt top and the waves make nice wavy stripes on the binding.


While the quilt was washing and drying, I made a matching pillowcase with the last of the rocket waves fabric. It was lacking a little something on the end so I appliquéd the same rockets that are on the back of the quilt and on the curtains in my son's room.


I wanted to get a picture of the entire quilt, but the grass was wet this morning and I don't have any helpers today to help me hold the quilt up. Oh well. You get the idea.


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Rocket Me to the Moon Quilt Top

Remember last weekend when I said I got three quilt tops done in three days? Here's the last of the three, minus the outside border that I've since added.



Way back when I first started quilting, I made this quilt top for my not quite three-year-old at the time. I was so proud of myself. I appliquéd those little rockets on there and thought I was the beezneez. But, as I learned more about quilting (like not using 1/2" seams, which is what I did here), I realized that this quilt top was crap. I tried to think of ways that I could salvage it, but everything I thought of required more work than I wanted to put into it. I'm also a cheapskate when it comes to most things and couldn't stand the thought of tossing it out. So, I decided to turn it into the backing and make a new quilt top.

I bought some Rocket Wave fabric by Michael Miller. I initially planned on just making a quilt top mostly out of that fabric without too much piecing. Then I saw these blocks by Amy of Diary of a Quilter and had to pick up these other rocket/space fabrics by David Walker to add to the quilt top. I was perusing a quilt magazine (sorry, I can't remember which one) and saw a quilt with this design (can't remember the name of it either) that I totally loved and thought it would be nice and boy-ish with these fabrics for my now three-and-a-half-year-old.



The colors aren't exactly the same as what I've already used in his room (like for his curtains), so I used the navy blue fabric as the sashing to tie the colors together a bit more.

I finished the quilting yesterday and need to bind it. I'll post more photos of the final product soon, along with matching pillows and pillowcases. For now, it's on hold so I can finish up the charity quilt. It's due a week from tomorrow and I still need to finish piecing the back (an update on that coming soon), baste it, quilt it, bind it, and wash it! Ack!

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