It's About Time

As the title of this post suggests, it's about time I finished a few things.  Haha. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit how many items I have in various stages of "near completion".  My friend Marianne seems to think my closet of unfinished projects is actually a black hole.....never ending supply of things to do.  She just might be right!!!

I'm proud of myself for not buying more fabric in a long time......some days it's a real struggle.....but I plan to continue my self-induced spending freeze indefinitely.

Along with my intent to use what I have, I'm hoping to finish up old projects between starting new projects.

In my never-ending closet, the first item(s) I found hanging was a set of four Christmas placemats, quilted with the binding strips already cut and hanging with the placemats.  Duh!!!   Why didn't I finish these?  I have no clue, but it's about time I do it now!!!!!!

Boy that feels good!  All finished!!!  Now I have a nice gift hanging and ready to give away this coming Christmas season.  I believe I started them intending to give them to my daughter Emily.  If she still can use this color scheme, I'll give them to her but if not I'm sure I'll find someone who would like them.

I also spotted another project, a baby quilt for a girl.  There were no binding strips already cut and stored with it so this took a little more effort to finish.

Searching through my fabric stash I came across a small piece, but large enough to cut four 2 1/2" x width of fabric strips to make the binding needed for a 30" x 40" quilt.

I sewed the strips together, folded it double, ironed, then machine sewed it to the back, flipped the quilt over and machine quilted it to the front.

Ta Da!!!!!

The next item I decided to make was a new project that used leftover blocks from the wedding signature gift quilt I finished not too long ago.

Since the remaining few new pillow forms I have in my stash are 18" square....that dictates the size pillow cover I make.  The left over blocks were 4 1/2" unfinished (4" finished).  After playing around with different layouts, I decided to go with the one below.  Four blocks across and four blocks down only made a 16" pillow top. There was enough of a neutral fabric from the original quilt left over to add an additional 1" border around....making the 18 1/2" unfinished top needed to fit the 18" pillow form.

I gave this finished pillow to the couple with the matching quilt to use on their sofa.

I also allowed myself some time to continue working on En Provence, the last Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.

Making progress......

The nice thing about having a dedicated sewing room is that I can have my embroidery sewing machine working on a project at the same time I'm piecing quilt blocks on a vintage machine.

Another bib for Ava.  Again, this design is from emblibrary.com  

Ava modeling her new bib....

While I was in the mood, I went ahead and made one more bib....

I had this picture texted to me showing her modeling this one as well....

I wasn't the only one who decided it was about time to finish a project. Ray painted the living room over a year ago but didn't do the connecting entrance foyer walls.  That meant that on a daily basis for much too long I've had to look at blue sponge painted walls next to the newer painted tan walls.  No more!!!!!  The entrance foyer is now tan!!!!!!    Yippee!!!!!

I went out on a limb and suggested we get an updated light fixture since he had the extension ladder out.  Hee hee.  He wasn't thrilled with the idea but agreed to do it. A quick trip to Lowe's resulted in the purchase of a new fixture (it was even on clearance with a much reduced price tag).

I'm a happy girl!!!!

Wow!  It feels good to finish a few things but now I'm tired!  Time for a nap!!

Until next time!