Four months after I started…. my Haptic Lab Constellation Quilt is done! And it was the perfect gift for my friend’s upcoming baby, whose nursery has a map theme.
The Haptic Lab Constellation Quilt is a great place to start if you want to take on a Haptic Lab project – it certainly takes a lot less time than the Boston city map I made a few years ago. As before, I really enjoyed doing the hand quilting while I was watching TV, all snuggled up underneath it: a craft project that doubles up as a blanket, what’s not to love?!
I used a navy quilting cotton for the top, a splattered print for the back that I thought looked a little galaxy-ish, and a layer of cotton batting in between. Then, navy embroidery floss for the circles and spokes, white for the stars, and then as I ran out of bias and didn’t have any more navy cotton I ended up using navy grograin ribbon for the edges – not perfect, but it worked!
Hand stitching isn’t my A1 best skill, but this quilt is very forgiving, and it’s fun to work on little chunks of constellations at a time. I did the “grid” of circles first to anchor down the sandwich of fabric and batting, and then started doing the stars, center first.
Finally I added the baby’s initials and birth year at the bottom!
Haptic Lab generously sent me a queen-sized quilt kit to work on next, so I’m going to have to source some enormous cotton and batting, and get ready to have a final quilt in… 2019?!
Have you ever tried doing this style of quilting? (I’m not sure what it’s called, just that it isn’t traditional). I love Haptic Lab’s kits, and I’m sure you could use the same principle (stitching through printed interfacing and ripping it off afterwards) for other creative designs.
Looks great! This style of quilting is called “hand quilting”. 😉 I’ve been dying to try one of their kits but I can’t decide which one! I want the constellation, Boston, Brooklyn, the gulf coast… someday I will decide.
Aha, a name! I started with the map but the constellation is definitely a slightly quicker project 🙂
it’s also called *whole cloth* quilting …. speaks for itself …. ;-)))
So so gorgeous Jenny! I love this kits and this particular one is definitely next on my list. Love your choice of colours and that splatter print is the perfect addition to liven up the back!
Thanks Fiona! It’s a great ” in front of the TV” project 🙂
Love it!! My husband is studying to literally be a rocket scientist, so space is an ever-present theme! I’ve had my eye on this one ever since you first started working on it. Maybe someday. Yours turned out beautifully!
Well that would be a *perfect* present… though he’d better appreciate the number of hours it would take!
It’s beautiful! I got the kit as a Christmas gift but I’ve been putting off starting it. I haven’t done any quilting and the Constellation Quilt is a bit of a dream project…
Ah yes, I procrastinate with the best of them – I actually got this quilt from my lovely friend last July for my birthday 😉
I’ve just started my constellation quilt! I’m contemplating using glow in the dark embroidery floss for the stars and Milky Way. Yours is gorgeous! Any hints?
Awesome! I started in the middle and roughly worked out, and did a constellation at a time in little chunks. Glow in the dark floss would be fantastic – I didn’t’ actually do the Milky Way because I couldn’t face all the french knots.
It’s great! I am working on the USA map one right now. It’s a great sewing project to take along on business trips.
Great plan!
beautiful! wonder if they make glow in the dark thread….would be awesome …
What a unique baby quilt and gift! Love this!
This is gorgeous! I’ve been admiring finished versions of this quilt on Instagram and I know it is only a matter of time before I’ll have to try it for myself.
Oh, wow! That is an awesome quilt design. It’s going to make for a really exceptional gift! Lucky baby.
Beautiful work, Jenny! When I’ve made quilts, I’ve found that basting my quilt with very large stitches helps to keep the layers from moving too much. It might be helpful for the queen sized on the docket. I’ve only hand quilted place mats, ha ha, but I’ve made a few machine quilted baby quilts. Some people prefer to pin baste, but I find that more trouble than it’s worth.
Jenny, I just heard your interview w/Colette radio, and was inspired to follow your blog. I happened upon one of your favorite posts–about your sewing studio. You mention your too-short table, and I offer a tip which I learned setting up a market stall display: cut pvc pipe just larger than your table legs–cut as long as desired to raise the table up to your dream height and slide the extensions on. Cheap, easy, stable enough for cutting.
Thanks for what you’re doing!
Absolutely gorgeous work. Constellations are so beautiful to work with. I was going to say it’d be perfect in a nursery, but then I read that’s where it’s going anyway so yay!
Love it! I received the queen sized kit for christmas and am looking for enormous cotton and batting too. I hand quilted my wedding dress – it was a more intricate floral pattern, and I spent every spare moment on it and it took 3 months. I loved doing it but I’m looking forward to this as a more relaxing project 🙂 It really made me love hand stitching!
Wow, it’s very beautiful! Kudos for all that hand quilting!
How many strands of the floss did you use? When doing cross-stitch I’ll use two but here did you use all 6 as they come together? Thank you!
HI Jenny – (Sorry for messaging so long after this blog post!) Your quilt looks fab! I’ve just bought the constellation quilt kit from Haptic Lab. Could I ask you, how did you keep the ‘back’ of the quilt looking neat? Also, do you think I could sew just the radiating lines through all of the layers, and then do the constellations just through the top? I do embroidery, but I’m not experienced in this kind of quilting. Thank you! Maya x
Your quilt turned out lovely. I wasn’t sure from your post if you were giving it away or it was for your own child, but I would suggest you add your name and the year that you made the quilt. Years from now when the baby is an adult she will appreciate having that information when s/he passes it down to the next generation and that child passes it to a third, fourth or 5th generation. Great quilts like yours have a habit of doing that.