swimming stars

well, maybe not exactly swimming, but resting on sandy shallows, with little waves washing over them - this is the picture I had in mind when I was making this baby quilt:

I wanted to sew a wonky stars quilt ever since I saw Susan's quilt, but somehow never had an opportunity until now.
I'm really happy with how it turned out, and sewing with blues and greens was refreshing after all the brown. 

It was also the first time I tried machine binding by stitching the binding to the front first, folding it over and stitching from the front close the binding, so that the stitch catches the folded binding on the back. (OK, I hope you know what I mean because I'm not sure how to explain it more clearly and I can't seem to find any tutorial for this method now). It wasn't as scary as I'd imagined and there were only a few places that needed restitching, so I'm glad I tried. I think I'll use it from time to time, but the look (and the process) of hand stitched binding will remain my favourite.

There is one more green and blue quilt I've finished, but I still need to photograph it.

In the meantime, let me wish you:

phew

In view of my meagre achievements last quarter, it's possibly a bit silly to create a longer list for this quarter, but here it is:

1. Euro siblings together quilt:

I actually only need to finish sewing the binding, bury lots and lots of threads and wash the quilt.

2. A quilt for my godfather:

I'm still deciding whether to go for the sketched pattern or rather make scrappy granny squares. To design something myself or to use an existing pattern I like very much - this is my constant dilemma.

3. A potential skirt disaster:

I need to add the zipper, stitch the facing to the waistband and hem the skirt. I foolishly made if from the pattern I like sewing but which is not too flattering on me, and I need to finish it quickly to see that I indeed look like a marsupial cat in it, and then wear it when I'm alone - it does have great pockets.

4. A denim skirt:

Made with two pairs of my old jeans. I still need to somehow insert the second pair in the middle. I'd love to have this ready for our big holiday in July, so I shouldn't postpone it any longer.

5. Gilbert's scarf (not that my brother-in-law is Gilbert):

I have maybe 3/8 of the scarf to go, but as I knit only on the train and not every day, it's still going to take some time. And since it's not needed until winter, my next knitting project might take preference.

6. Anne's sweater for me:

This is probably the most unrealistic goal from the list, as I've never knitted a sweater before, not to mention I'm a really slow knitter, but it would be so great to have it ready by the end of this quarter (Christmas or even New Year's Eve seems more likely though). 

7. In-fashion-again medallion quilt for my friend:

This still needs those design tweaks and choosing the rest of fabric not to mention all the cutting and sewing, so it will probably move to yet another quarter, but hopefully having it on the list will remind me to at least work on the design a bit.

8. Corduroy skirt:

This ugly disaster is here only so that I don't forget about it, but I'm not too hopeful I can make something wearable out of it this quarter.

And that's all, although I'm sure something will appear unexpectedly, like a certain swimming stars quilt I still need to show you, as it slipped in between the quarters.

Ok, let's link this up, before it's too late.

let's face it

I treated my first quarter list for 2014 Finish Along as rough guidelines only and that meant 2 finishes out of 5.
So, the finished ones were number 1:

described in more detail here

and number 3:

they seem a weird shape like this, so if you want to see them in action, look here

The remaining 3 projects will be copied to the Q2 list, although some other projects that appeared in the meantime might need to take priority.

Of course the two finishes from the list weren't the only things I sewed during those three months.

 (some blog posts for those not blogged yet might appear soon-ish)