I put this quilt in the mail for my friend Melissa’s 7-month-old son recently and since it arrived safely this week, I’m finally sharing it here! I started working on this spacey version of the Cornerstone quilt several months ago, but as things sometimes go, it got pushed behind several other projects for a while. So when I had a slight lull in my project list last month, I jumped on the opportunity to finish this one off!
The pattern is Cornerstone by Krystal Jakelwicz and the fabric is Lily & Loom Space Camp. I bought both items as part of a Craftsy kit that also included backing and binding, which made the process super easy from start to finish. I just fell in love with the fabric and couldn’t resist — and since Melissa is also a NASA coworker and I made a space-themed quilt for her first son a couple years ago, another space theme seemed fitting!
(In another weird full circle moment, that first quilt was what led to collaborating with Craftsy on additional designs, so it’s funny that I used a Craftsy kit this time.)
The quilt top started as 10″ squares that were easy to cut up using a sort of “stack and whack” method — the blocks are really just fat log cabins made from layer cakes. It came together easily, but I did end up trimming my blocks to be slightly smaller than the pattern called for. Despite careful measurement of my seam allowance, my blocks were coming out a bit small and inconsistent — which I think is related to the pinked edges (i.e. small zig-zag) of the precut fabric. I really dislike pinked edges because it makes it more challenging (to me anyway) to get the measurements exact and keep a consistent seam. But it’s a very common thing to see in precuts, so there’s not much choice but to forge ahead. Fortunately these blocks could be trimmed without affecting the overall look, so I chose to do that rather than have to do a lot of fudging when putting the rows and columns together.
I thought about longarm quilting this one with some space-inspired swirls, but I couldn’t find a time slot that worked for me in June and since Melissa’s baby isn’t getting any younger I wanted to get it on its way! So I quilted wavy horizontal lines on my home machine and liked the result. I often find that my instinct is to quilt pretty sparsely, and after time has passed I find myself wishing I had quilted more. So after my first pass across the entire quilt, I went back and did another set of wavy lines in between (and crossing over in some spots) the first set. I’m so glad I did! I think the quilting density ended up perfect for this one.
Hooray for another fun finish!
The fabrics are so fun and amazing in this quilt. I would have gifted it, too, but had a hard time parting with it. 🙂 I bet it will be a well loved and used treasure.
I was told that it’s already been put to use, which made me quite happy. 🙂