I have a shelf in my closet full of those jumbo-size plastic storage bags. Each one contains the pieces of an unfinished project. I haven’t counted, I’m thinking it’s better to not know.
My new kick has been to try and do something unfinished around my house at least one day out of the weekend. That could be something big, like the powder room painting (thanks for all the advice, boy do I have some great ideas to implement!), or pulling something off my inactive work in progress pile aka the jumbo bags. A project moves from being an active WIP to an inactive WIP when I cry Uncle and give up all realistic hope of completion in the near term. That’s when the pile moves from the floor to the bag.
Having all the pieces in the bag relieves guilt and lulls one into a false sense of comfort and hope that it will be easy to pull out the bag and begin work on the project at the drop of a pin.
My original posts about this Mystery Quilt: one, two and three. And, yes, I got confused myself that the titles to those posts actually reference Step 1, Step 3, and Step 4. Please don’t ask me to elaborate on that, I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking.
Where we left off: I was debating about how to set the blocks. I decided to make a square tablecloth which influenced my final choice of a layout. The wrench in the plan was that I needed 64 squares to do an 8 x 8 block tablecloth, I only had 60 from the construction process and no extra fabric. I purchased the exact amount the instructions specified. The silver lining was being forced to make do. I pulled fabrics with similar colors and created 4 traditional log cabin blocks that I interspersed into my layout. A perfect amount of offset color and design to make the project more interesting.
I used flannel to back the quilt with no batting. I wanted something thin that would drape on the table. I sewed the binding on with my machine. I’m getting better at that technique, a real time saver. I matched the binding to the color of my living room rug:
In case you’re curious, this project went into the bag last December with only the binding needing to be finished. It’s that bad around here folks.
:: Some Random Things ::
I’m really overwhelmed with the kindness of your comments in my last post. I’ve written that line several times and it sounds lame but I can’t figure out a better way to express myself. It meant a lot to me. I’m really speechless about this but please know that I appreciated each word. New friends and old.
I won the book Craft Inc. – Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business. Yes, that lucky star again. Kathreen interviewed the author of the book last week on Whip Up and asked people to leave a comment answering two questions related to starting your own business. I’m very excited to get this book. I also took the time to read all the comments other readers left, a great resource that stands on its own.
I thought I’d have more time once the girls were back in school. Instead I feel like I’m in a whirlpool. School activities pulling me in a million directions. I started to hyperventilate yesterday when I looked at the calendar and saw Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all staring me in the face. Breathe, not everything has to be handmade, breathe, there are stores for these purposes, breathe, there’s always next year to finish the Halloween quilt, breathe, …
We talked about Christmas at work today. It made me feel a little bit sick!
congratulations on winning the whipup contest! i was happy to see your name there.
i really like this quilt, too. i was recently considering making my first quilt with no batting but someone argued that with nothing inside it’s not a quilt! i didn’t want to believe that so i am very happy to see your successful batting-free quilt here.
Oh god the busy-ness of it all… yes. I can’t quite express it right now, even.
The quilt you made for the table looks lovely and I’m so glad to know that not eveything quilted needs a batting! Please keep on breathing, it’s good to realise some things can be bought and don’t have to be (hand)made. I felt so quilty to buy a friend some things in a store the other day, because I was sure she expected to receive something handmade. When I told her she wondered why I had been pondering on that, because she was happy with my visit and liked everything I bought her. So, what are we doing to ourselves???
Again you just awe me with your creativity. The tablecloth quilt is beautiful.
I was thinking about halloween yesterday too. I need to make Luc a “Jailhouse Rock” outfit since he is crazy about Elvis. And I have ALWAYS wanted to make the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz- if I want to I am going to have to do it this year before Jacob decides on his own he wants to be something else!! Then before you know it Christmas will be upon us!
oh, i’m a big fan of that quilt. nice. you must share your machine binding tricks…i find that so difficult.
It’s beautiful!!! youa re going to inspire me to start my first quilt yet!! lol
I love how it turned out! And that you coordinated the binding to your rug.
I love how that quilt looks on that table. I’ve been thinking about Christmas too. Eeek!
I mentioned the holidays in the breakroom the other day as I was furiously crocheting and got a few glares from my dear co-workers. I just laughed and crocheted faster.
The quilt is very pretty. I have six unfinished tops at my house. HELP!
It is a comforting thing to hear that others get overwhelmed with all there is to do, especially someone like you who continually makes such lovely things. A couple days ago, I pulled out the unfinished 4X3 sampler quilt and have determined to finish it THIS year. Your post was very encouraging to me today.
amanda
If you’re overwhelmed it doesn’t show! Years ago, I worked for a very wise man who taught me to split my “to do” list in two, drawing a line down the page to make a 2nd column that said “done.” Then, I was to write down everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I did during the day, no matter how small. Of course, many of those “done” items weren’t on the “to do” side – they were interruptions, distractions, more urgent priorities. But he gave me the gift of being able to look back at the end of the day and see what I really did accomplish. I’m still doing this twenty years later. And if that fails, remember the old saying, “life is in the interruptions.”
you just completely encourage and assist my to do list! thank you for the inspiration. … and congrats on the wins! you deserve!
Congrats on inclusion in the book and on all of the (fantastic) changes happening these days for you. Very, very exciting! Good work!
A quilt as a tablecloth! I love it so much – it looks fabulous and so homey. You’re giving me ideas, and I don’t need any more projects either!!!
ooh ooh! I want to know how to machine bind too!!!!
Yes, calm down! There’s etsy too if you want handmade gifts. This week has been full of school activities around here too. Last week I was at camp. Maybe next week will be calmer…
I just posted photos of my powder room, which we redid last winter.
The quilt as a tablecloth looks lovely! Can I ask how you did the binding using the machine? I absolutely hate hand sewing and would love to make a quilt without having to do much of that!
(Not that you need something more to reply to or think about! Sorry… You are busy enough:)
How lovely! I need about 40 more hours in the week…
Hey everybody, I promise to do a machine binding post in the next couple of weeks. It’s much easier to show with pictures than describe in writing. It’s very simple but I have figured out one technique that works for me in getting the corners to lay flat and square and I really want to share that. Did I mention I’m going to Girl Scout camp for the weekend! xo kathy
You are just so good at creating a masterpiece! The tablecloth looks wonderful. I can’t wait for the machine binding tutorial. Have fun at girl scout camp!
Doesn’t it feel great to finish up an old, in-progress project? I can hardly recall, but I suppose that could be remedied easily.
Another one DONE–and beautifully so! excellent!
That is a beautiful tablecloth and I am inspired to finish my table runner that has been sitting on my sewing table to over a month. I just need to do the machine quilting and I am hesitating because I am not sure how I want to quilt it. Congratulations on your win over at whipup.
You’re not the last one to finish your Mystery Quilt…I think I am. Marybeth did the quilting for me last Fall and I still haven’t finished the binding. My excuse is that we did do an overseas move between then and now but we’re settled now so I’ve got no valid excuse. Thanks for the inspiration to finish the thing!
Love the quilt. Especially the idea of using it as a tablecloth. Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.
What a wonderful quilt it looks just lovely on your table!!! Great binding by the way.
Congrats on your latest win!!!
I always think the start of school will give me more time but it never does!! And yes, October symbolizes the start of the “busy season” around hear too!!
I think the quilt is lovely! The use as a tablecloth is great! That way you can enjoy it when your eyes are open, not just shutting in sleep! Nice with hydrangeas. Did you see my entry about Purple Haze? An answer to prayer – now I CAN live there!
I really like the contrasting binding. So, I like doing the binding by machine too, but inevitably the sewn line on one side doesn’t match up with the binding on the other. Do you have any tips?
What a lovely table cover. I bet it feels good to get those jobs done one by one!
I also wanted to say thank you for the fabric you sent from Jone’s collection. It arrived last week and I’ve just been so pleased with it!
I’ve posted a bit about it on my own blog: scrapsadaisy.blogspot.com if you wanted to come take a peek!
Breath…. you’ll do fine! LOL, Three of my four girls are in school this year so I understand how you feel. Our Pacific Northwest rainy days are wonderful for getting inside “jobs” done though, so we have one advantage!
Tiffany
Oh, your solution to this problem was clever. I never would have guessed if you’d not told us. What an attractive table cover this has turned into!
Congrats on the book inclusion and finishing old WIPs! You pencil case is so cute and witty that is very much deserves publication – I’m not surprized someone snapped it up.
Breathe.
The quilt is lovely! What I love the most about it is that while the individual fabrics alone probably wouldnt have made that nice a table spread, but putting them all together in this lovely design brings out the best! Plus, you wouldnt get tired of seeing this day-in-and day-out as apposed to a plain table cover….:)
I was just going to ask about the binding technique! Looking forward to that post. I have more plastic tubs of UFOs and scraps and material than I will ever have the time or desire, now, to finish. A little at a time is a good motto – - but are there any quilters out there that would like part of my fabric stash? Need to de-clutter my life …
This is so gorgeous! What a good idea! LOVELY!
hurray for a finished project! and how lovely it is, too.
Oh, yeah! I’m with you on the plastic bag problem. I have the left-over bags from comforters and pillow sets. The ones with the zippers. Yikes!
Good luck nailing those WIPs
[...] This is a Lonni Rossi Infinity Blocks quilt kit. I pieced this top 3 years ago. It’s waited ever so patiently since, in a plastic Jumbo bag waiting its turn for finishing. I just pulled out the bag, cut a backing, cut the batting, taped, pinned, and quilted that baby. It was tempting to put aside the sandwich on the meeting’s eve but I forced myself to proceed with cutting and sewing on the binding. We all know what can happen to a quilt that’s missing the binding. I can trust myself to finish the hand work which I did in short order. [...]