Another project done!!!! Yay!!

I have finished the growth chart!!! Oh my!  I'm glad it's done.  There were some interesting moments.....first of all, the fabric that I chose to use has a very high thread count and is really not very pleasant to hand stitch into.  Also, when I tried to free motion stitch around the lettering, the thread broke constantly (it's a 12 weight thread) and I was mighty frustrated.  I ended up putting a hoop around the work and was able to free motion stitch at that point, but clearly that meant that I couldn't free motion onto the rest of the quilted top so I had to settle for straight lines, for which I used my walking foot.  This fabric takes the dyes beautifully but won't be much use to me if I can't free motion stitch onto it nor enjoy hand stitching on it.  And I was planning on using it for my quilted pieces for the Kemshall class.  We'll see if I can wrestle it into submission, but I have my doubts.  I did use my dyed fabric for the measuring 'line' and for the binding but that was all straight machining.  Very interesting.  And I have another 20 yards of it!!!  Anyway, here is the finished chart.

I also finished one of the needlepunched pillows that I showed you earlier.  I used my dyed blue and green fabric for the  background (it was supposed to be brown and green, according to the dye labels!!) and even though the front is brown and green, it doesn't look bad since the values aren't too outrageously different.  I used an envelope finish, which is something I hadn't tried before.  Unfortunately, it finished up slightly too large for the smaller sized pillow form and slightly too small for the larger one.  I opted to put in the larger once since it'll get compacted over time and so will finally fit!!  It's all good!

I quilted up the back (with batting etc.) with some free-motion shapes to make it a bit more interesting.  It's another Christmas gift, so hopefully it will be well received.

So now, there is no longer any way I can ignore those pesky dust bunnies.  I have picked up the 18-pound bird and all the extras for tomorrow evening's dinner and I shall make the place somewhat presentable for a fun evening with my kids and their families (fortunately they already know about me and the dust bunnies!!).  Off I go to begin.  I wish the very best of the season to you all........