The Death Star

"Hey, Aunt Deborah, could you make me a pillow case?" (text from my great-niece)

(Inset picture of a moon on a dark background.)

"Can you send me a link to the picture, because that is not just a normal moon?"

"That's not a moon...that's the Death Star." I text back.

"EXACTLY!!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes, and can you make it a blanket instead?"

So....here I am, trying to make a Death Star blanket.  I've read the instructions for making the pillow, but since my DS was going to be so much bigger, I had to do my own pattern.  I bought the background fabric a couple of weeks ago and it has a "Milky Way" look to it.  However, I kept putting off trying to figure out the pattern...until yesterday.

The hardest part was trying to find something large enough to trace a circle big enough. 

I didn't.

I decided the DS would need to be about 30 inches round, so I cut a string 15 inches and tied it to a pencil.  Using the only thing I could find large enough for tracing paper, I used the back of wrapping paper.  I decided to go with making 2 half circles.  I used the straight edge of the paper, holding the string down on the edge and simply held the string tight while I drew a half circle.

I folded it in half and trimmed it up to get a good shape.  Using the pattern for the pillow case as a guide, I marked the bottom section off so that it would have 3 rows.  Still using the string, I curved it a little at the center to get the look of a circle.  Then I just marked some patchwork pieces on those rows.

I did the same thing for the top port of the DS, but making 4 rows.  I used the strings as a guide when I drew the lines for the rows. 

So, here is the result.  I did a smaller circle for that strange part of the Death Star that kind of looks like it's dented.

I'm going to use a black strip to separate the two pieces, and then do all the star in whites and blacks.
I colored all the pieces that will be black and then numbered them by row (1A, 2A...1B, 2B....)  I did a little adjustments to my lines to have a more curved look on the edges.

All the pieces are cut out and ready to be put with fabric. 

Today's project.

You just never know what those crazy kids will ask you to do when you expose them to the culture of  Star Wars.