Quilt down

I had a most exciting Saturday.  I went to work, worked a very busy day (which I kind of loved) and then came home, cleaned a bit, finished binding my quilt, and cleaned a bit more.  Okay, it was a pretty lame Saturday, but I got a lot done and didn't spend any money- so that's a double awesome thing for me since I'm being super frugal for the Paris trip.

So here's the quilt.

It's 81" x 81" and I love it. I'm so happy with my first quilt.  I do wish I had studied up and looked at other people's Swoon quilts online because then I would have figured out how to make it fit a bed and I could use it as a comforter.  But that's okay.  I took a class, I made a Swoon, I learned a lot, I love my quilt and I'll find a way to use it.  Right now it's hanging out upstairs in my office on the rack I got for Christmas (because I was totally going to finish this quilt by Christmas- ha!) 

I was kind of hoping for another day of brilliance, but it feels a bit like a break up.  I miss my giant project on the couch that kept me warm and busy at the same time.  Good thing there's another in the cutting stage. 

I must be getting faster at hand-sewing the binding.  I had about 3 feet left and I estimated that it would take about 3 hours- and was subsequently dreading the idea of 3 hours of hand sewing ivory stitches on an ivory quilt.  A silly Rom-Com was just getting started on tv so I jumped right in, got up and cleaned the kitchen a bit during the commercials (things get messy when I'm not here!  This hurry-and-get-ready-and-make-lunch-in-4-minutes thing makes a bit of a mess too over time) and just as the ending credits were about to roll I was putting the last stitch in and weaving in the final ends.  So it really took more like 1 hour and 40 minutes to finish my binding and that's pretty awesome.  I was thinking that I might bind the next quilt by hand and then I remembered that while I enjoyed the process, it did take about 7 months to finally bind all the way around. So we'll just see.  

Now I can't decide...jump right in to the quilt I've been cutting fabric for (plus buy another $50 of white fabric and cut that before I actually get started) or go through Rob's closet with him to dig out all his old Cross Country shirts that don't fit anymore and start turning those into a T-shirt quilt.  His birthday is in June, I can totally swing that...right? I think I can if I'm not hand-binding anything. But then I'd have to buy a bunch of backing fabric...if I don't have anything that would work.  We'll see about that. I might have something manly enough in the stash.  Either way, I'm going to need to buy some batting, but I'll just wait until I have a coupon for that so it won't be a huge purchase.

I'm thrilled to have another project crossed off my list.  There's nothing at the moment that I'm dying to cast on (which is making me both relieved and nervous) so I'm just going to keep on finishing things.  Next up that I'd like to finish:

Fugly Freeform Bath mat.

I have been using all my kitchen cotton partials (leftovers from pot holders mostly) and crocheting them into this beast because my old cat peed on my old bathroom rug so much it fell apart in the wash.  And to get rid of all of those kitchen cotton oddballs.

It doesn't lie flat.  I was hoping it would.  But I really don't care.  It's going to get stepped on with wet feet every day and it doesn't have to be beautiful, it just has to keep me from busting my ass on the tile floor. And I think it will suffice.  It's still a little too small to be a bath mat but as you can see, I've still got a few oddballs to go. I also think that I'll just keep adding to it for a while every time I finish a pot holder project until it's finally a good size.  But when these 6 oddballs are gone, it's getting put to use.

So that's my project right now.  Up next: finishing a wool cat blanket and a few shelter blankets.  Riveting stuff, I know.