Starry Sky for Karin

The Rakish Needle round robin quilt top that belongs to Karin in Germany arrived at my home in November last year. Katrin added the large piece on the right with the big planet and Sputnik. I used quite some time wondering what to add to the top. Maja came up with the first idea without even knowing about it. She designed a paper pieced star that I felt fitted perfectly to the scene.

This is my version of Maja's 'Christmas Star' that I blogged about here , I had fun making this beautiful star. It is kind of a nice coincidence that I am sending the quilt top to Maja who will finish the last round of the Rakish Needle Robin before the top is returned to the owner, Karin.

This is how the star looks inserted into the quilt top.

When I was at my quilt guild meeting in January I showed some progress photos of the top to a few ladies. One of them suggested to make something from Star Wars to put into the quilt. I searched the net and found this little beauty designed by Quiet Play. My version of the Death Star fits perfectly into the quilt top.

Then there was the last blue space on the quilt that had to be filled. I decided that a planet would be perfect, and one of the most visual planets is Saturn with its characteristic rings. The Saturn design shown here is my own creation.

I had the perfect fabrics, both for the planet body and the rings. The rings are bias tape of the same fabric in different colors, and it looks as if there are rocks and debris swirling around the planet.

Unfortunately I didn't take any progress pictures when making this. The way I made it was to cut out the planet body first, then I pressed a quarter inch seam allowance around the edge and glued the planet to the background with a few drops of water soluble glue in the center. After having made the bias tape I started with the darkest ring and glued it in place, and tucked the ends under the planet. Then I carefully stitched down both edges of the bias.

After all the rings were stitched down I trimmed the edges of the bias and sewed the planet body down by hand with a matching thread color.

The completed top after my round has gotten really big, there's hardly enough floor space to show it off.

My son helped me in the photo shoot outdoors. The outer space has never looked this good, thanks to the contribution of Karin, Rachel, Ileana and Katrin. Now it will be packed up and sent to Maja in Poland and she will do her magic on the quilt top before it is returned to the owner, Karin.

I am looking forward to seeing all completed tops sometime later this year. It will be a gorgeous display in the end!