My kids love glow in the dark things and since my oldest is obsessed with space (seriously, he has brought home space books from the school library every week for the last two years straight), I knew I had to make him a glow in the dark space quilt.
I started with this amazing realistic galaxy fabric for the background and for the backing I found this perfect glow in the dark constellation fabric.
- Earth on background
- Back of quilt
The problem was the planets. I tried so hard to find realistic prints. I could find cartoony ones, but this little dude is a serious scientist and nothing but the most accurate and realistic looking planets would do. Fabric circles in a similar color wasn’t going to cut it. I didn’t want to have to deal with hundreds of questions like “Where’s Jupiter’s red spot?”
So I decided that I was just going to have to paint them myself. Neptune is my absolute favorite. I’m seriously obsessed with this sapphire blue. I want to dye everything this color.
I appliqued the planets on the front and then outlined them using glow in the dark thread. In hindsight I wish I had just used the glow in the dark thread to applique them because I basically made more work for myself by making one step into two.
Be forewarned though; take extra time with that glow in the dark thread because it becomes really obvious in the dark if you are wobbly! (I may or may not have had to redo a planet or two…)
The sun was topstitched with glow in the dark thread to make the whole thing look like it’s burning. I even have a few solar flares in there!

Glow-in-the-dark!

Glow-in-the-dark backing
I love this quilt. I’m so happy with the way it turned out and my son was so excited when he finally got it!