Volare - Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Thank you for visiting my Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry!

I made Volare earlier this year as a commission for a friend's son.

It's a generous single (twin) bed size, and the background is made from about 130 curved, free-form shapes (up to about 18in long) which I drew by hand full-size, then cut up to use as pattern pieces - all carefully numbered. Below is a photo part-way through cutting the pieces on our sitting room floor:

I hand-painted all the planet fabrics. They're appliqued to the background, with an extra layer of batting underneath them - the trapunto gives them some fullness and dimension.

Then I had fun adding lots of detail, by applique, thread-sketching, and in the quilting.

I also found some great space fabrics, which I used for the astronaut on an EVA near Saturn and the space shuttle approaching Mars. While I initially positioned the planets in correct order from the Sun, Saturn moved closer through design influences. And with the exception of Earth which is extra-large (diameter 7in) to show detail, their sizes are also in order - if not to scale. Call it artistic license!

I'm not sure what my favourite detail is; the visitors on Mars, the International Space Station (below), Halley's Comet (between Saturn and Uranus), the tiny plane (look north-east of Earth), or the Southern Cross (bottom).

There's more information and photos on the main post about the quilt here, and there are a number of progress posts, too (in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

Thanks again for visiting, I  hope you'll be back.

In the meantime, do go and check out all the other BQF entries!