To the finish line!

I went to my quilt weekend last Friday and sewed bindings to quilts. And then sewed more bindings to quilts. And finally, sewed more bindings to yet more quilts. As my friend Valerie said, "I was bound and determined to finish (yes, the pun was intended) my projects." Some of them had been sitting around for quite a long time. Here are their photos and their stories...

Here is my first finish of the weekend:

This pattern is called Faceted Jewels and it is by Glad Creations.

I started this quilt at the Houston Quilt Festival in a mystery class with Charlotte Angotti in 2001. Let me tell you that this baby has A LOT of pieces in it. It wasn't difficult, but it was extremely time consuming. I put it away for a while, then pulled it out a couple of years ago and carted it around on various quilt weekends. I finished the last border last November. It came back from the machine quilter in January, just waiting to be bound and finished! Not a UFO anymore! And look how nicely my sweatshirt matches the quilt! Mike and I are keeping this one.

Here is a link if you are interested in purchasing the quilt pattern: http://www.gladcreationsquilts.com/shop/Glad-Creations-Patterns/p/Faceted-Jewels-sku-GC111.htm

Here is my second finish of the weekend:

This is a t-shirt quilt that Marion and I made as a commission through our Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/2PugsDesign?ref=si_shop. It is for a sweet young woman who saved all her t-shirts from camp. It came out very cute!

Next to be finished was a series of two matching Asian Sampler quilts. I purchased this quilt as a kit from the Cambridge Quilt Shop http://www.cambridgequilts.com/ at a Shop Hop back in 2006. Marion was home sick with the stomach flu, so I bought her one too. I broke the kit down into two wall-hangings. Originally, I had intended to hang them in my stairwell, but I think I may give them as gifts. I love Asian fabric but it really doesn't go with my decorating style, which is kind of "beach-themed". These quilts are special because my then 9-year old nephew Josh spent the whole day with me and helped me select where each of the squares would go in the quilts. I finished both of these tops in 2008, and they've been waiting for binding since December of 2011. They'll be happy to go to a good home! Marion is helping me hold up the pair. Her quilt was done a long time ago and now lives with her son Michael and his wife Julie. Are you counting with me? That's 4 done so far!

Here is my Bargello quilt formerly known as UFO #5. The fabric for this quilt was purchased WAY back in 1995 at Red Barn Sewing and Yarn Center http://www.redbarnonline.com/ in Merrimac, MA. This fabric sat around for a long time before I even took it out of the bag. Luckily I had written some notes and left them in the bag with the pattern and the fabric. I finished this top in March of 2010. It too has been sitting around waiting for a binding since December of last year. Red Barn holds a special place in my heart because it is the shop where I took my first quilting lessons!

The last quilt that I bound over the quilt weekend was made out of Brown Bagger birthday blocks from 2007, called Oriental Lanterns. Everyone in the group ended up HATING these blocks. They required a lot of precision to make them accurately and it wasn't the best choice for a group project. I used all the blocks that I received in the swap and didn't bother to make any more. I finished this top in May of 2010 and it also came back in the big bunch from the machine quilter in December of 2011.

Here is quilt #7 that I actually finished on Wednesday night BEFORE the quilt weekend. It only needed one strip of binding, but I had misplaced the binding fabric! This was made out of our 2003 Brown Bagger Birthday Blocks. This quilt even sat on my couch for a while before I remembered that it was still missing a small piece of binding!

I also made two fleece blankets on Sunday. They were quick and easy and didn't need any binding! The Princess blanket is a gift for Michael's little cousin. The dog blanket is an early birthday gift for my friend Cindy who is our beloved dog-walker and dog-babysitter.

I finished the dog blanket around 6pm on Sunday night right before Joannie and I shut the quilt weekend down (in other words, we were the last ones out of the room). A special Thank You to Joannie for taking all of these pictures of my finished projects!

Regretfully, I still have four more quilts and two quilted jackets that still need binding! But, wait, there is another quilt weekend in just two weeks! Thanks goodness for poor scheduling!

Don't worry, there will be a separate blog post showing off all the Brown Baggers and their projects from the quilt weekend! Hope you enjoyed the show!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy