Ladybugs Quilt :: It's Finished!!!

I am so happy that Ladybug's quilt is finally finished! I absolutely love how it turned out. I used a simple Yellow Brick Road quilt pattern and fabric that I purchased almost 3 years ago, so my apologies I don't know the designer!

View from the front

I had enough of the boarder left over to piece the backing fabric and make it just a little more interesting than solid purple hearts.

A simple pieced back

I came to a bit of a stand still on this quilt when I couldn't find a single piece of fabric in my stash that worked with this quilt. Not one! Somehow when purchasing the fabric all that time ago I didn't think to purchase enough for binding... So I put it aside for a bit and got to work cleaning off my WIP table. Lo and behold I found just enough scraps from this project to make a pieced binding and I think it worked out for the best. Not only could I use up scraps but a crazy patchwork binding is much more in line with Ladybug's personality than something straight and simple.

Showing the pieced binding made up of scraps from the project

WIP Month Update :: Quilted Table Runner

Did you do it? Did you finish up any of your WIPs (works in progress?). I think that I'm going to officially name February as WIP Month over here at Hands and Home. I will check in every week or so with an update on the state of that horrendous work in progress table that I showed you last week. At the end of the month I'll do a big round up post to see just how well I did.

Here is my first finished WIP: The quilted table runner that I planned to start years ago is finally finished and will be making its way to its new home shortly.

This was a super simple pieced table runner, which I machine quilted and hand bound. I had so much fun making this that I think I will make a few more. Usually I do straight line quilting for table runners but I decided to stipple this one. Now, I do not profess to be an expert stippler, in fact this is the first time that I have really stippled anything and I know that I have some issues with tension to work out. I tried to make it as fluid as possible with as few sharp edges as possible. It is by no means perfect, but you know what I discovered? I love to practice!

A note about binding. I think a big reason whyI have so many unfinished projects around here is that I absolutely dread sewing bindings on. I know that a quick fix would be to machine stitch them, but personally I much prefer the look of a hand sewn binding (its those invisible stitches!). Its funny because as I sit down to do the hand sewing I always find myself enjoying this slower, calmer rhythm that is missing so often in our every day family life. Its just a little bit of "all-me" time, and so very relaxing and reinforcing of the fact that I must look for a little more of this calm in our days.

I love to hear from you so please leave a comment. And if you have been working on your WIPs please leave a link to your WIP blog post in the comments section!