A crafty astronaut has sewn a starry-quilt block aboard the space station, and is inviting others to join her in doing the same. Karen Nyberg, who is in the final weeks of her five month stay on the International Space Station, recently revealed her handiwork a 9-by-9- inch (23-by-23-cm) red, white and blue square that she stitched together to create what may very well be the first example of quilting in space.

“This is what I’ve made,” Nyberg said while holding up the sewn square in a recorded video released by NASA on Wednesday (Oct. 30). “It is far from being a masterpiece. I’ve discovered several challenges with cutting and piecing and stitching in weightlessness. I will be bringing this block back with me when I return to Earth and I’m inviting all of you to make your own star-themed quilt blocks,” Nyberg said. “We will be combining them with my block to create a quilt for next year’s 40th anniversary International Quilt Festival in Houston, where I hope to make a special appearance.”

http://www.space.com/23436-space-quilt-astronaut-karen-nyberg.html