A few months ago I saw a post with this awesome Death Star quilt. I have to admit, I am a huge Star Wars fan, and I regularly pull out the movies for a viewing marathon. They just make me happy.
I looked up the pattern that post referenced and found the site. It is a blog called Quirky Granola Girl, and she has a nice tutorial for making the quilt. However, the way she did it was all using EPP (English Paper Piecing), and while I can do EPP and do enjoy a good hexie, I just wasn’t up for doing EPP on the whole thing.
I thought about it for awhile, and started to think I could probably figure out a way to paper piece most of the pattern. I was a bit daunted by arranging the colors so that it looked right, so I thought about it some more.
Then December hit, and Rogue One came out. We went and saw it and I was inspired, so I came home and whipped out the pattern and the original Star Wars (Episode IV) for motivation.
I had a bunch of Zen Chic Modern background Ink fabrics from a bundle I bought that seemed like they would work well for my Death Star. I also had a few Blueberry Park grays and blacks that fit in too. I wanted to make sure that I got the arrangement right, so I took a picture of my line-up using the Mono filter on my camera to check the tones.
From there I made a bunch of copies of the pattern and set about paper piecing the top and bottom hemispheres. It really went pretty well, and I was happy with how it came together. I purposefully fussy cut a few of the fabrics – I thought the flowers on a Death Star were funny, and love the woman’s face over there on the left.
After the paper piecing, I only had a bit of hand appliqué to do to sew down the main pieces, and to add the dish to the upper hemisphere. I picked the small dotted background piece because I thought the dots looked like stars.
I embroidered a good Star Wars quote on it:
…and then hand quilted concentric rings around the circle. I thought the hand quilting would be nice on it as it is a pretty small piece (~17.5″ square).
Added binding and a hanging sleeve, and it is finished:
The back:
I think it is really cool, and I’m happy with my paper pieced adaptation.
This quilt was on my Q1’17 FAL list, so I’ll be linking it up when the time comes. This is my fourth finish!
What a fun mini quilt. That lady looks a little surprised to find herself aboard the Death Star! On behalf of the 2017 global FAL hosts, thank you for participating in this quarter’s FAL.
Oh, I love it, well done! Thanks for sharing!!!