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!

Snow, Kitties and Quilts

We have several inches of snow right now and it's beautiful.  Perfect for snuggling in a blanket with an adorable kitty.

Because it's been so snowy I haven't been out as much as normal.  I kept thinking, "More time to sew!"

But somehow I kept getting distracted.  I would walk into the sewing room with big intentions but end up on a cleaning/organizing spree for the next few hours.  Our sewing/laundry room looks better, but the skirt I wanted to work on is not any closer to being done...

The only sewing I've managed is finishing the quilting part of our bed quilt.  (Little happy dance!)  :)  Only the binding left until it will be completely finished!!!

See the little stars quilted in the middle of every pieced star?  :)

With this quilt so close to completion, I've been daydreaming about my next quilting project.  I'm all about quilts right now, which may or may not be related to my recent discovery of the Moda Bake Shop.  So much fun inspiration!

Quilt Kitty

Cats are very helpful on quilting evenings.  It's so inspiring to have an adorable kitty by my feet.  :)

My sister and I are officially halfway done with the quilting!!!

Quilt, Quilt, Quilt!

You may remember that my sister and I are working on a quilt for our bed.  Well, we have finally made it to the actual quilting process and are making significant progress!

I just love looking at the back of quilts - all the tiny stitches making patterns on solid backing fabric.  And the white-on-navy makes it easy to see what you've already done!

We went ahead and painted our room "Nantucket Dune".  Yes, I choose a paint with a nautical name.  :)  But I also really love the sandy color.

I hadn't painted much before, so it was a bit of an adventure...  But now that the pink walls are gone, I'm very motivated to work on the quilt and finish my room makeover!

Quilt Sandwiched

Around a month ago Keely and I finished the quilt top we've been working on, but we didn't get a chance to sandwich it until last Saturday.  Here's the story - this quilt is huge.  And unless we took all the furniture out of our living room there wasn't a room in our entire house that had enough space to lay the thing out.  Thankfully we have a dear friend who quilts all the time and has a large basement floor that is perfect for sandwiching quilts!

"Many hands make light work" is so true!  This is the first quilt I've ever made, but I'm told it can take several hours or even days to do all the basting by yourself.  With 6-7 of us working it took only 2 1/2 hours!

I know it's taken us a while to get it to this point (My excuse: we haven't been working on it consistently and lots of other projects have been made during this time), but there is not a machine stitch in the entire thing.  And after two years of work, I must confess I'm rather proud of it!  :)

Now I'm looking forward to beginning the actual quilting!

Quilt and Quilt Again

With 12-out-of-16 of our quilt blocks completed, I'm very eager to finish the piecing and move on to the next step in the quilting process.  With this renewed spirit I'm hoping to have the rest of the blocks finished in the next week, and then we can move on to making the strips that go between the blocks.  Soon we may be able to see the star pattern!

I’m really looking forward to redecorating my room; it’s going to look so amazing!  Having a nautical bedroom is going to be so much fun.  :o)

Hours 4, 5, and 6 - Bed Quilt

Remember that nautically inspired quilt my sister and I are working on for our bedroom? Well, I decided it was going to be finished this year (completely through the hand quilting), and after my *clears throat* success *shuffles feet* with such goals last year, I've decided to put in a lot of work early this year. We've completed 9 squares, so only 7 more to finish!



Hand piecing is nice because we can keep our hands busy while chatting or watching a movie. :o)

Nautical Blocks

I finished another quilt block today! Quilting is so much fun, and I love dreaming of the day when the finished quilt will be my bedspread. :o)



The design will eventually make stars, but at this point you can't really tell... I'll have to get to work so that we can see them!