WIP Weekend + WIP Week

Well, in my usual fashion, despite not having done much crafting for some time, my WIP's appear to have flourished. How does that happen.

So have decided to have a WIP Weekend followed by a WIP week.

My list of projects (in no particular order of finishing required, nor actual importance...)

1. The scarf I was making for my former housemate. To give to her on her birthday. In September. Then rescheduled to give to her before she flew to the US for Xmas. Three weeks ago. Now re-rescheduled to finish and post to her by 1 December...
2. Similarly, a scarf for my former housemates boyfriend. *sigh* I probably could've had this finished BEFORE they went away if I had only knuckled down. But not long to go on that one.
3. A paper snowflake mobile for Christmas. Only started this on Monday. Cutouts done. Ironed nice and flat (FYI best done without the steam function turned on...). Just dabbing some KindyGlitz on for sparkle-arkles and then have to thread together and I am done.
4. The afghan. 'Nuff said.
5. Plastic canvas fridge magnets. Long-term, semi-abandoned project fished out of a cupboard yesterday;
6. An aged baby blanket I started about 5 years ago. Oh well, other people are still procreating...
7. The Thimbleberries Quilt. Have finally galvanised myself to buy the backing fabric. I suspect I should have it completely finished in, oh, about 2 years at this rate...
8. Finalising some storage cards for my plethora of DMC embroidery threads.
9. The skirt I started back in July. Which I fear no longer fits me...
10. Some applique to tea-towels which had tiny fraying holes in, but are otherwise perfectly serviceable.
11. Oops. The baby hat for my friends 3 1/2 month old baby o_O
12. Some applique to screen prints I did at the last Brown Owls I attended..
13. I'm sure there's more...

So there you go. In the snatched moments between social engagements this weekend (you think I'm kidding. I'm totally not...), I shall endeavour to finish at least some of this list :)

Wish me luck...I think I'm gonna need it o_O

I love...

...long weekends (how very Aussie of me!)...
...the smell of freshly baked cakes (lemon meringue cupcakes today, banana bread yesterday, apple custard tea cakes for Brown Owls on Saturday)...
...a surprisingly good book that I picked up on a whim at the library...
...and, the feeling of achievement when you finish a project...

YAY!!!!

That's right! I've finally finished the Bento Box Quilt that I've been working on for, ummmm.....

::scampers off to check her project diary::

::footsteps slowly coming back::

...umm, yeah. Appears I didn't write it in the project diary. Lets seeeeee. It would have to be well over 12-months.

Easily.

If not longer.

So, let's not keep the finished project from you for any further length of time.

Taaaaa-daaaaaaaaaaaaa!

It's kind of a crappy perspective, but I did have to stand on my kitchen bench in order to get up high enough to get the whole quilt in shot, so, hey, I took my life into my own hands peeps, just so you guys could see it ;)

The basic construction is small rectangles of indigo Japanese fabrics, combined with coloured Japanese fabrics. Each square was made up of 8 separate rectangles - 2 coloured and 6 indigo. The two coloured rectangles are of the same fabric and are sewn together with the indigo fabrics on the outside.

The backing fabric is a black koi carp all over design, and the borders are plain indigo fabric combined with some spare squares in the corners and the side borders (mainly because I ran short of border fabric...). I then machine quilted the outside row of 'boxes' using white cotton to mimic sashiko stitching. The top and bottom borders are quilted on a 45 degree diagonal, again using white cotton.

I have to say that there are bits of it that I'm not all that impressed with - nothing wrong with the design, just my rendition of it. As usual, my issues with the backing fabric catching were there - it's like I'm cursed!! The front piecing is alright - the main section is the best. I didn't really think out the side borders very well and was also running out of fabric, so (to me anyway) they seem a bit half-a$$ed. But, I am VERY proud of the binding. I hate making binding, mostly because its so time consuming and I usually scald my fingers on the steam iron and such.

Additionally, I generally manage to muff up my binding attachment. I think this is because I was sewing it onto the front and back of the quilt at the same time. What this caused was the back of the binding to not always attaching properly, and it makes the quilt quite hard to manipulate around, and quite frankly its just a drag. And I always end up with binding issues - like crappy corners, uneven hems and such.

This time, I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt using my machine and then hand sewed the back of the binding to the back of the quilt. Worked a freaking treat!!! A bit more time consuming for sure, but a 1000% improvement on the overall binding look. Corners are much neater and the stitches on the back are practically invisible.

So that's one less thing off my (freaking massive) list of 'Things To Do'.

Now if I can only sort out my personal backing fabric "issues" all would be well...