Happy New Year - 2019

Happy New Year!!!!!

It's a bittersweet morning at our house. M, James, and Mr. Bear have already left and are at the airport waiting for their flight home. I miss them already. Well, I do miss Mr. Bear!!!  OK - so who am I kidding - I did enjoy their visit and I will miss them. Have a safe flight and LOVE YOU ALL TO PIECES!!!

Mr. Bear checking out his travel bag

M, James, and Mr. Bear

Mr. Bear looks like a seasoned traveler

I think he's much happier to be going as a passenger this time instead of cargo!

Yesterday was - well - it was just one of those days. I was on a mission to finish those 6 items so I could arrive at 100 items on my finished list for 2018.

I had some paperwork to catch up on in the morning so that took precedence. Then when I did start, the day didn't start well.

I needed to print some labels and instead of printing an entire sheet of labels, I tried the tape trick. For some reason, it didn't work out quite as expected.

The result of a paper jam in the printer

Oh, shoot - what a pain. This time, I stabilized the fabric properly with an Avery shipping label and it worked much better. Now I had four labels to stitch on.

Properly printed labels!

Time to get to those last two bindings stitched down. I stitched the first one in place and it was only when I went to do the final join that I realized that the binding was cut at 2 ¼" not 2 ½".  ACK!!!!   How could that be? I tried to stitch it to the front, but the seam allowance was too large for that binding width so I had to take the binding off and restitch it in place. GRRRR!!!  Next time - MAKE A NOTE that the binding isn't the normal width.

Seam allowance is TOO wide for the binding width

And now the piece is finished.

It's done - OH! it's not!

As I was admiring it, I realized that there were four buttons that also needed to be stitched in place. And now it's finished!!!!

Finish number 96 for the year!

The back of number 96

I had that big sleeve to stitch in place. I also had to go to the UPS store and while I was out, I thought I would stop at the laundromat! I know - I told you I wasn't in a panic!!!  The duvets went in the washer, I walked next door to the UPS store and mailed my package. Then walked to Tim's and finally back to the laundromat where I listened to my audiobook and hand stitched away.

I got home and finished off the sleeve and the label. Now it's hanging in my upstairs hallway and looks awesome!!!!!  I'm a big fan of scrap quilts and this one is definitely scrappy. That's finish number 95 for the year.

Finish Number 95 for the year

By this time, I think it's around 4 PM or even later. Oh my - I'd better get myself in gear!!! But I knew the next couple of projects were small. The binding was put on this one yesterday, but it still needed a label.

I stitched a folded triangle in the top two corners into the binding for the hanger. Super easy and NO hand stitching required.

Triangle corners for the hanging sleeve

And here it is - Finish Number 97 for the year.

Finish Number 97 

 Let's keep at this - the light is at the end of the tunnel. I had to put the binding on this one, sew four buttons on, and attach a hanger.

Finish Number 98 for the year

I used a ring for the hanger. That was easy!

The back of number 98

This bag has been sitting in my studio for a long time. I really wanted to put a row of topstitching around the zipper. That got accomplish last night and this is finish number 99. I told you some of the finishes didn't require a lot of work!!! Actually, this bag is quite funky. And it wasn't easy to do the topstitching. With all the lining and interfacing in the bag, it didn't want to turn very easily under the sewing machine - even with the free arm. But it's done!!!!

Finish number 99

Then it was onto the last item for the year. I've been working on this for the past week. I had to stain and varnish the legs and put felt pads on the legs. I had to zip to the hardware store yesterday at 4:30 (a half hour before they closed for the day!) and get felt pads. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute. The legs had dried by then and all that was required was to screw the legs into the base.
That was EASY!!!!! But a lot of steps had to be completed in order to make it easy. I finished that one at 8:30 or thereabouts.

Finish number 100

So yes - I did it! I made 100 items in 2018. Some were completely brand new, some were finishes of an existing item, some took a long time, some took small amounts of time. But the bottom line - the studio looks that much neater and tidier without those items hanging around.

I'm going to do the same thing for 2019. There are things that have languished for a long time and they need to be dealt with.

Case in point, M woke me up to wish me Happy New Year and do you think I could get back to sleep? Nope - I think a nap is definitely going to be in order for later today. After an hour of lying awake and my brain is going, reading didn't help, I got up and went to the studio to start work!!! I tidied up those big plastic bags of projects. And I pulled out this mess. I'll share that with you when I'm further along. Oh, what a way to start 2019!!!!

A mess to start off the New Year!!!!

I didn't get this picture posted on my Instagram account so I'm posting it here. This is my top 9 from Instagram. I'm excited to see a VARIETY of things in that group.

1. Oh, Look Fabric where I taught (and will be teaching) a lot of classes. 
2. Ziplining
3. Cycle trip 
4. Tuffet class number two (that I taught)
5. Quilting the WEMQG charity quilt 
6. Tuffet class number one (that I taught)
7. Collage class (I was a student)  
8. In the forest taking photographs of quilts  
9. Cover girl - that's my quilt on the cover!!!

Top nine from Instagram

I started to create a blog post with all my finishes in it, but I abandoned that part way through the year. I will do it this year because while I have a list, I think it would be fun to actually see all the finished items.

I'll share the funny resolution story with you tomorrow. I'm too excited to get back to my first UFO project!!!! Who am I kidding? I'm falling asleep now!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!