Ring Of Stars Quilt

My Ring Of Stars quilt is finally finished!

As I mentioned in my binding post, I was motivated by Moda's Quilt Olympics to finish so I could enter.  My sisters joined me to get it done Friday...  And we did it!  But they had already taken down the competition.  :(  Oh, well.  I'm still grateful for the inspiration, and I'm so happy that my first quilt is completed!

It is a queen sized quilt and doesn't have a single machine stitch in it!  I even hand sewed the binding pieces together!  It was fun, but I'm planning to machine piece my next quilt.  And do something a little smaller, too.  ;)

It was a super fun project, and I'm so pleased with it.  (And as you can tell, my cats love it!)  I have quilter's callous' on 4 fingers and am already starting 2 other quilting projects, so I think I'm officially addicted to quilting!

Now to repaint my pink furniture, hang stuff on the walls, and complete the redecorating!

Pencil Skirt Failure

One of my first sewing projects was a 50's circle skirt that didn't turn out.  The waistband was wonky, and it hung strangely.  I wore it around the house a few times and then threw it in my closet thinking someday I might try to use the fabric for some other project.

Well, that day finally came when I decided to try to make it into a pencil skirt.  I based the shape on a skirt I already had and set to work.  And when I finished...  I realized I would never wear this skirt.

It's not absolutely egregious, but it hangs a little funny and is kinda tight at the top.  The fabric was cheap to begin with, so I'm not sure there was anything I could have done to make this turn into a nice skirt.  But at least I tried!

As you can tell, I didn't even bother to hem it.  But I did get the fabric out of my closet, so yay for stash-busting!

Speaking of stash-busting, one of my goals this year is to try to complete at least one stash-bust project a month.  I'm hoping to have the "stash" in my closet pretty much gone by the end of the year!  Then I can fill it with new fabric/projects.  ;)

All About the Binding

In the last post I mentioned how much I love the Olympics.  Lovely evenings filled with fun sports, USA medals, and lots of crafting.

Well, in honor of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Moda Fabrics is having their very own quilt olympics, and I am determined to finish my quilt so that I can enter!

So Sunday afternoon I cut off the extra fabric around the quilt to make the binding...  and discovered that I didn't have enough fabric.  Oh dear.  But that was the perfect excuse to make a trip to JoAnn's on Monday!  And I went a little crazy because all their quilting notions were 50% off - even batting!

All washed and cut out, the binding is ready for sewing today!

I have to be completely done on Friday, so off to the sewing room I go.  Wish me luck!

Knit Again

The last several weeks have been filled with the adventures of a wedding.  One of my very dearest friends said her vows before God and many witnesses last Saturday, and I was very blest to be part of my first wedding!  We made programs and favors and bouquets and we painted wine bottles for every table at the reception, and...  We got our nails done, we had our hair done, and generally had a wonderful time!  Weddings are too much fun!

But the busy fun can't last forever.  Now that life is settling down, I decided to pull out some yarn and set to work giving my first pattern a final trial run.  If it goes well I'll be posting my very first original knitting pattern!  And I haven't done any knitting recently, so it's good to hear the click of my needles again.

This has been a great project to have around as the Olympics begin.  :)  I have several projects I'm hoping to get finished while I watch.  I'm really looking forward to this year's Olympic games!