County Line Quilts: Bound for Mars (the Red Twin)

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Bound for Mars (the Red Twin)

I've always wanted to make quilts for twin beds like a pattern in "The Joy of Quilting." The pattern had stars, a moon, and a rocket ship. Don't ask me why I imagined the pattern being used on twin beds, but I did. Mother wanted to make quilts for her financial guy's 6-year old twins. It seemed like a natural melding of ideas. The only hitch was that one twin (George) only likes red and the other twin (David) only likes blue. Since the quilt is pictured in blues, I had to make color adjustments for the Red Twin. These quilts took a long time (months) to piece and bring together. The technique I learned for this project was making mitered corners. Each window frame has a mitered corner, as well as each corner in the borders. The pattern also had a unique way to piece the triangle blocks for the Stars' arms. It involved making a sheet of diagonal strips and cutting the sheet into the desired triangle size. It was tedious and I'm not sure I'd do it this way again.

I delivered the quilts in person, but we never got a thank-you or feedback. Maybe we shouldn't have spent all the time making these quilts. At least I accomplished my bucket list goal of making twin quilts using this pattern.

Size: 64" x 81" Twin-bed size
Quilting: Quilted in a meandering loose stipple with a wavy, ribbon-like pattern in the border. I had to remount the quilt to turn it 90 deg. to do all four borders. Used gold polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Goldenrod"). Free form quilting. 7 bobbins. Quilting by Patty.
Backing: Bright Red-colored flannel print from the Laurel Leaf.

Batting: 50-50 cotton and polyester.

Binding: Bright red plain cotton from my stash.
Pattern: "The Incredibly Cool Cosic Rocket Ship" by Joan Hanson from "The Joy of Quilting" book by Joan Hanson and Mary Hickey.

Piecing by Patty.

Pinned into frame August 7, 2015. Quilting on long arm quilter August 10 - 12, 2015. (Patty).

Binding by Patty.

QC by Spencer.