NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18! It was super exciting…and I made a quilt to celebrate, of course!
I came across some variation of this line — “Mars is the only known planet inhabited solely by robots” — in several articles from last summer, when the rover launched. It made me smile, and became the basis for my entire quilt.
This little quilt doubles as my Aurifil Artisan challenge response for February! We were asked to use three different thread weights in a single piece, and I was able to do that here. I’ve had so much fun experimenting with different threads weights over the last 6-8 months already, and it’s fun to see how different thicknesses work in different spots.
I have made a couple quilts before with text, and have paper pieced many small letters. But I really wasn’t in the mood for a bunch more tiny FPP letters! Applique was the obvious choice. After choosing a font (this one is called Space Weel), I tried a couple different techniques — freezer paper applique and needle turn applique. At that point, I was planning to make the quilt larger, but even at a larger size, I wasn’t getting the result I wanted with those two applique methods.
So I changed plans and decided to use raw edge fusible applique. This was certainly the quickest and easiest method, but I was worried about fraying — I really didn’t want the crisp curves of the letters to be overwhelmed by frayed fabric edges. Still, I couldn’t come up with a better option, so raw edge applique was it!
First, I quilted the wholecloth background with a simple diagonal crosshatch using 50 wt Aurifil cotton thread, because I didn’t want this crosshatch to go over my letters. Once that was completed, I printed my letters on a couple sheets of Heat-n-Bond, fused that to the back of my pink grid fabric, and cut out each teeny letter piece before carefully fusing it in place.
I knew I would need to add stitching to secure each letter for the long run and minimize the fraying concern I mentioned earlier, so after considering a couple options I finally decided to painstakingly stitch around the edge of each tiny piece. This took a while — here’s a real-time video of that process — but in the end it was worth it. To minimize the look of this edge stitching, I used thin 80 wt Aurifil cotton thread and I was very pleased with the result!
Finally, it was time to add my rover graphic, which I drew in Illustrator based on photos of the real thing. I had to do some research on how to effectively transfer this design to my fabric — the quilt was too opaque at this point to shine a light through to trace on top, and too squishy for my embroidery transfer paper (which needs a hard surface underneath) to work.
Finally I came across a suggestion to use tracing paper! I have a roll of tracing paper that I’ve used in the past for my occasional garment sewing, and it worked perfectly here. I traced my design, secured the paper with some large basting stitches, and was able to then stitch the rover design using a standard backstitch and nice, thick 12 wt Aurifil cotton thread. Once that was done, I gently tore away the paper to reveal my cute little Perseverance!
I look forward to years of Perseverance exploring the surface of Mars!
The stats:
- Measures 16″ x 19″.
- Fabrics are Speckled in Metallic Cayenne and Grid in Metallic Pink Gold. Both are from Ruby Star Society.
- Background quilted with Aurifil 50 wt thread in #2225 (Salmon).
- Letters appliqued with Aurifil 80 wt thread in #6722 (Sea Biscuit).
- Rover embroidered with Aurifil 12 wt thread in #2420 (Light Blush).
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl says
What an awesome mini quilt to commemorate Perseverance; the addition of the rover in 12wt thread at the bottom is awesome. When I don’t want my raw edges to fray, I’ve been really happy with the Crafted Applique method which I found in a book by Lara Buccella, but I’m ready to give Heat-n-Bond with 80wt a try after seeing how nicely this turned out for you!
Sarah says
Hmm, I’m not familiar with that method and will have to google it! But yes, I was really happy with how well the applique turned out. I used Heat-n-Bond Lite and was wondering if I should have used a heavier-duty version of Heat-n-Bond, but it worked well!!
Erin says
I love this!
Sarah says
Thanks Erin!
Cheryl Strong says
I just love this so much. And what a fabulous otherworldly thing to happen during such hard times for us on this panety!
Sarah says
Yes, indeed, it’s always fun to think beyond our own troubles and remember there’s a whole universe out there!
Jennifer says
I love it! Thought I do wonder if there might be some unknown inhabitants . . .
Debbie says
Super clever commemoration of the event! I love how you used to different threads to achieve the look you were after!
Lynn Jarzombeck says
Wow, what a wonderful little quilt to celebrate this special event. Thanks for all the sharing, makes me want to do letters and designs/embroidery now.
Sarah says
I was really happily surprised at how well this technique worked even for those small letters.
Patty says
Love this! When I saw the rover had an image ‘bumper sticker’ with silhouettes of all the other rovers, I thought how fun that would be to stitch up! Your Perseverance looks wonderful.
Sarah says
Yes, the little “family portrait” on the rover is so cute!