Another finish

Another finish - and it is still January!!!!!  

This quilt idea came from a Sharon Craig book, Layer 'em Up #3, to which I added sashing.  My friend Moe did the quilting.

Here is the backing.

This is a very small quilt and could be used as a table topper.  It is going on my give-away pile.  

Backing

Piecing a backing for a large quilt is a challenge if you are also trying to use up old pieces of fabric.  There was not enough room to lay out this backing for a nice picture, so here is the squashed-up wrinkled version.  It is the backing for this quilt.

And here is the binding ready to attached when the quilt is quilted.

It is January 29th and my Christmas cactus is in glorious bloom.

  So dramatic.

It is also the middle of the afternoon on Saturday as I write this blog and I have my choice of sewing some binding, knitting on a pair of socks, or doing some cross-stitch.  Oh how I wish I could do all three at once - along with reading a good book and watching TV and snacking on popcorn.  Alas, I have to choose.  I'm grateful though that I have such lovely choices.

UFO #3 Finished

Topsy Turvy Santa table runner #595 by Happy Hollow Designs - from 2005 - is now finished.

For those of you who may have seen the pattern or done this little table runner you will note that I did NOT do the border and therefore the accent buttons that come with the pattern were not used.  Why?  Well, due to the fact that this is a UFO and the parts got separated and I was not paying attention to the pattern, as soon as I finished the blanket-stitching around the appliqued Santas, I layered this little piece and started doing a little machine quilting before it dawned on me that the extra fabric in the box was for the borders!  Oops.  So the cute borders and corner stones with the peppermint buttons did not become a part of this table runner.  I used the border fabric as the binding instead.

Here is a closer look at the stitching - and the reason it took me so long to get done.  That blanket stitching (by machine) around all the little pieces was tedious.

It is cute though and will make a nice decoration next Christmas.

I looked over my list of 13 UFO's I want to finish in 2011 and realized why most of them became UFO's.  They are either ready for quilting, or they have a huge problem to solve.  I need to analyze whether the project is worth fixing the problem or not.  I have done the easy UFO's, and now it is time to face the problems.  Sigh.

Looking at the above statement in a more positive manner, I have greater challenges ahead of me - more opportunities to expand my expertise.  Now, isn't that better?

UFO #2 Finished

For 2011 I have a list of 13 UFO's I plan to finish and this is #2 - a flannel Mitten quilt (pattern from Country Threads), quilted by Country Threads.  I finished the binding today.

The backing is a mitten print flannel and the binding is a plaid flannel.  (Sorry for the fuzzy picture.)

Eleven more UFO's to go and there are 11 more months in 2011.  At this point in the year I think I have a good chance of getting them all finished.

Side tracked...........

In my attempt to finish up old projects, I got out Christmas At Hawk Run Hollow, Block #7, which I last worked on in May of 2010.  Why did I put it away?  Who knows, but it is fun to work on it again.

As long as I was pulling out old projects, I also pulled out this knitted poncho/shawl that I started in 2005.  It is time to finish it up.

HOWEVER...........
It is so easy to get side tracked..............  A dear friend of mine gave me a bag of beautiful Brilla yarn, 

and I have spent the last two evenings trying out pattern after pattern trying to figure out how best to use this wonderful yarn.  Of course I wanted something spectacular yet very, very easy and quick.  It had to be either a scarf or a shawl or something similarly one-size-fits-all type.  Last night as I printed off the 12th free pattern that looked interesting, I suddenly got the brilliant thought that I don't have to figure this out today, or this week, or this month.  It was a gift and I can choose to put it away and use it some other time.

So I'm going back to the old unfinished projects.............

Knitted scarf done

First knitting project of 2011 finished - the curly (potato chip) scarf.

This is how it looks around my neck.  I'm glad I made the center section in plain garter stitch as it lays nicely around my neck.

It is nice and warm too on a cold winter day here in the mid-west.

Kinda gonna check two things off the list.........

Two things got done today that I can kinda check off the long list I made January 1st.  I finished the LHN Reader.  Is it considered finished yet?  No, because it needs to be framed or made into a flat fold or a pillow or a small quilt.  But since I have a whole drawer full of "finished" pieces, it will be a long, long time before I can permanently cross it off the list.

For the quilt "flimsy" that I showed yesterday I made a backing.  The fabric I showed yesterday was not a big enough piece for the backing unless I did some creative cutting and re-piecing, so I decided that I might as well make a  pieced backing for more interest.  I used some of the leftover strips from the quilt in the very center, some odd colored fabric that I have not idea how it got into my stash, and the chosen fabric from yesterday.

Also got the binding ready to go for this quilt.

No pictures, but I also found time to Knit on my curly scarf and put some stitches on another counted cross-stitch project.  It was a good crafting day here at my house.