Lonestar UFO finally finished

I've have really been in a rut since we moved to Japan. I'm not sure if it was going from the tropical Paradise of Hawaii to a country even further from home or if it has something to do with losing an amazing (and very inspirational) view of the mountains and trading it for a view of a storage shed and garbage cans but I have been in a rut. Sewing has been a part of my life for years now, it's been my stress relief and my happy place mentally and so I'm really trying hard to get back up and continue on creating.

One of the things that might be overwhelming is the clutter I feel around me.  Going from a bigger house to a smaller house, bringing all my fabric and most of my sewing room furniture, I have yet to feel like there is a positive energy flow in my sewing room.  Yes, i'm lucky to be able to even have a sewing room but the smaller space means more clutter if I don't clean up after every project.  So gradually I'm going to take all my "UFO" projects...otherwise known as unfinished objects, and I'm going to do something with them.

Yesterday I started with this simple lonestar block that I created in Septemeber (yes, almost 1 year ago!!)  I love it but the background fabrics I chose didn't seem to go with any other background fabrics I have. I didn't purchase enough of that Toile fabric to make even more blocks.

I have had a pillow form sitting in the corner of my living room and of course, I restorted back to making yet another pillow cover.  In my house, we can never have too many pillows. I love the pop of color, I love that they can be moved around and I love how they add a little more interest to an otherwise plain couch.  I used the well written tutorial from Pretty Little Quilts blog.

I made my own piping, first time putting it on a pillow cover and I love the way it looks.
 This corner has a different piping fabric.

I decided to go with just straight matchbox quilting.

 The toile fabric was actually a quilting cotton I purchased from JoAnn Fabrics a long time ago. The star fabric is a mix of Tasha Noel's Vintage Market line and Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy line.