The Last but not the Least

I expect that the above will be the last UnFinished Object in the something of a challenge that some creative friends and I have been doing. The aim was to finish objects or projects that we started before January 1, 2013. Each finished project earns someone one entry in a raffle, the winner(s) of which will be drawn in several weeks when some of us are gathering in Perth, Australia. While I have many unfinished projects, I don't expect to be putting any time into finishing them between today and my departure for Perth two weeks from tomorrow.

The quilt remnant shown above came from a quilted jacket I made some years ago. I was originally thinking of it as a purse. Then, the idea of a laptop bag arose, and it actually would have been just the right size. The problem was that sewing the sides together to make it into a bag was impossible on Xena. Even my Warrior Bernina could not handle two layers of quilt. It hit me the other morning that the piece was the perfect way to keep track of all sorts of buttons and pins that are sitting in various containers, pockets, etc. around here. The ones shown above are the ones I found around the desk in the kitchen and the card catalog in the dining room. I have enough other rooms to search through that the possibility exists I may end up using both sides of the above.

One for the Road into a New Year

I started this wall hanging two or three years ago as part of a workshop the local guild held, instructed by Paula Golden. The idea was to do something somewhat free-form using only three or four fabrics. When we chose the fabrics with which we were going to work, for a challenge I chose a couple fabrics that I thought were pretty ugly. The background fabric is silk, from a skirt I bought at a thrift store. The snake shape and pagoda are also from a thrift store. The only fabric I used that I actually liked was the one that gave me the leaves. At the workshop, I got as far as having stitched down the snake shape and pagoda and pinned the leaves in place. I found this piece last week while cleaning and re-organizing my studio. Since the last two quilts I made demanded some precision, as will the next two in my queue, I wanted to do something freer in between. While zigzagging to hold the leaves in place, I managed to put a sewing machine needle into my fingernail and finger. The villainous needle, actually bent by my nail, was, after the above photo was taken, affixed to the quilt next to the leaves in the bottom left that I was stitching at the time. I think the jewelry came from my grandmother's collection. I'm not totally pleased with the placements, which may be because the quilt is not hanging but lying on the table. For now, though, this is done, and I can start the new year by starting a new quilt that had better not take me as long to finish as this one did.