Thanks Kate and a Giveaway!

I can't thank Kate Spain enough for posting about my wedding ring star quilt! All the comments have been so flattering and fun, and I'm trying really hard to not let it go to my head.

So for all of my new visitors, I thought I should share more about this Work in Progress.
(I got into more detail than I planned so you might want to skip down to the giveaway!)


My nephew married his long-time girlfriend last March. As soon as they got engaged, Christopher, Jamie and I started to plan their wedding quilt. When two of my nieces got married in 2004, my mother and I made quilts for them, which you can see here. The precedence had been set!

It was easy to select a pattern. It had to be a wedding ring! Jamie liked the Wedding Ring Star with an applique border. I highly recommend Judy Niemeyer patterns. They go together like a dream.

The three of us went browsing on the Fat Quarter Shop website to see what collections appealed to them. The couple picked a few of their favorites. Julia and I took that list with us to the Lowell Quilt Festival in August 2010, hoping to find most of the fabric in person at the vendors. We found a few layer cakes from the list and Fandango by Kate Spain was our favorite. We bought the layer cake and used those pieces to decide on fabric placement so I could buy the yardage needed.

OK, skip ahead several months. All that was done for Jamie's shower was 2 blocks (and a printed mock up of the top) and a couple of pillowcases.


Skip ahead to where things stand now. All the fabric is cut, and I have the pieces lined up on this big plastic tray, ready to go.


Here's one block with the border and binding fabrics. I'm using Kona Snow (oh, how I love Kona Snow) for the background of the blocks and the applique border. Then there will be a wide border of the brown print. The green will be used for applique stems and binding.

I need to make a total of 49 blocks, which I didn't want to piece all at once and risk messing them all up. I can comfortably work on about 16 at a time, and move the pieces I need to this smaller tray.

16 blocks done, 33 blocks to go!

I noticed last week that I was approaching 100 followers and I would need to have a giveaway. It looks like the link from Kate might get me to 100 today!

I just ran down to my LQS for some fat quarters of Fandango for 2 lucky winners. I'll also throw in something handmade, like a keychain lanyard or a seasonal paper-pieced lapel pin, to be made later today.

To enter, leave a comment telling me which colorway you like better, pink or green. Then tell us if you've ever made a wedding quilt for someone. I'll pick two random winners on Monday morning.

Good Luck! And thanks again, Kate!