I’m in love with my latest finished project. Lately, I’ve been trying to finish up stuff that is oh so close to being done. This weekend it paid off.

In November 2008, I started the Winter Sampler from Crabapple Hill. I foolishly thought I could finish for Christmas 2008. I barely got started that year. Well, I gradually worked on it over the year whenever I needed a nice hand project. Then I came to the adding wool pieces, and I stopped.

Well this last week it all changed. It only took a couple of day to add the wool pieces  and some fabric to the edges. Yesterday, I decided to tackle the remaining tasks. I needed:

• A pillow insert
• Fabric for back
• An invisible zipper
• Beads

Based on a friend’s recommendation, I bought my lumbar pillow insert from Restoration Hardware. Luck was on my side, the pillow inserts were 20% off. Even if it isn’t on sale, I think the insert is affordable considering it is a down feather. I went with down feather because it holds up so well. I plan on making two 20″ pillow to coordinate with the embroidery pillow. I’ll get those inserts from Restoration Hardware as well, and I’m pretty sure pillow inserts are the only thing I can afford in that store.

I found the fabric for the back at Whimsy Cottage, a local quilt store. I scored fabric that was 30% off. Yea for me! When I left the house the first time, I forgot to take fabric swatches with me. After hitting Restoration Hardware, I swung by the house to get the fabric swatches. I’m glad I did. Without the fabric swatch, I totally would have bought the wrong fabric. Lesson learned.

Finally I hit Joann’s for the zipper and beads. I went for a 14″ invisible zipper. I installed the zipper on the short edge. In the future, I’ll install the zipper on the long edge, less pillow to stuff. The pattern called for two different bead sizes. I went for one. I figured I didn’t need a billion extra beads. Instead I only have like a million.

Final assemble went well. I made the pillow cover an inch short then the pillow’s width and height. I took this advice from some blog I read. The smaller size made it harder to stuff the insert into pillow cover, but once it is stuffed, it looks so much better. I imagine it might be easier if I added a polyester lining to the pillow cover, perhaps next time. The tighter fit made the puffs on the side look better than I ever imagined.

Now Ross wants to know when I’m going to start the Spring, Summer, and Autumn sampler. Oh, silly boy.

This year I decided to take a stab at least at planning a themed dessert. Now if I could bake, I’d follow the expert advice from Bakerella. Man that girl can bake! I’m bookmarking the movie popcorn brownies for next year. This year, I’m sticking to a movie themed desserts: licorice, caramel popcorn, and perhaps come cake pops. OK, the cake pops aren’t a traditional movie theme dessert, but I’m intrigued by Bakerella’s cake pops. Bakerella makes baking look so easy that even I think I can bake. Before you know it, I’ll be baking this red velvet cake.

I’ll let you know how it goes. With a bit of luck, my camera will cooperate and I’ll get some good pictures.

Now the kitchen is presentable, I have clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow, and I’m writing a blog post. Ross is concerned that I’m too wired to go to sleep. He’s afraid he’ll have to entertain me. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be sound a sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Anyways enough of this talk, on to more important things.

In my sewing room, I have a couple of Expedit bookshelves, which I love. However they were starting to look kind of junkie. This made me start to think about everything that I store. For some reason, I have a hard time getting rid of some magazines even though I rarely go and look at them again. See the mess!

So I decided to purge. But before I purged I cut out all the images that inspired me and pasted them into a sketchbook.

Now I thought I’d end up with a ton of pictures, but I didn’t. When it came down to seeing things I liked, it was easy. Now my shelves are getting closer to being organized. I’m seriously considering buying some drawers for the Expedit shelves and some nicer magazine files for some loose papers that I decided to keep.

I should mention that I did not throw away all my magazines. I do have a small pile of quilting magazines that do look through for inspiration. However, I am moving them to magazine box. I don’t want them to be apart of what I see everyday. Whatever ends up in plain site, needs to either be visually pleasing or be a supply that I use regularly, like fabric.

Also looking through all the magazines did take a bit of time. If I was sick this weekend, I’d probably still need to work on this project. So one small victory for the cold.

I’m still working on the after pictures. I need to visit Ikea first. I’ll even take the time to color correct the “After” pictures. I promise they’ll be better than the “Before’ pictures.

One last thought, I saw the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie this weekend. Now I know the books are nothing to brag about, but they were a fun quick read. I just wish the movie would have stuck to the book just a bit more. (sigh)

The completed quilt:

I know I need a better picture. If the weather cooperates with me this weekend, I’ll get one. I’ll even make sure the camera battery is nice and charged. Until then, you get the basic idea.

And the back:

I really like this swirly pattern. I want it in multiple colors. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen. I found this fabric on the clearance table.

First I pin the back to the carpet in my living/dining room area. I like the long pins with flowers on the end. They’re strong and stay pinned to the carpet. If I had hardwood floors in this area, I’d just tape it. Pins are a good substitute.

Then I lay down the batting. For this quilt, I used Warm n’ Natural. It’s the first time I’ve used this batt

It was easy to work with. Since it came in a package, it was slightly crunched up. It responded well to steam. The cats approved.

Next, the top makes its debut. I centered it on the lower layers and steamed out the wrinkles. I love my iron. It’s heavy on the steam.

Finally, I pulled out my box of curved safety pins and got to work. This is the part that requires determination. I used a lot of pins to hold this baby together. In fact, I even bought more after I ran out.

Apparently, all the safety pins paid off. So far the quilt has been a breeze to quilt. In a day or so I think I’ll be done.

Finally, I decided that I needed to do something about it. It turns out that with less than 1/2 yard of fabric, I could easily make it pleasant to look at.

Originally the iron had a thin piece of foam over the particle board form. I replaced the foam with two layers of Warm n’ Natural batting, stapling it to the board. I hate it when the batting shifts as I iron.

Then I made the cover using the existing cover as a pattern.

I can’t begin to tell you how happy it makes me to look at this cheerful ironing board. I think I need to add more bits of bright pink in my studio.

When it’s time to replace this cover, I think I’m going to scrap this board and make my own portable ironing board. Recovering this board helped me realize that this board was nothing more than plain particle board cut into a nice shape. While it’s shaped for ironing clothes, it really doesn’t suit my primary needs. I’d rather have a full rectangle. If I should decide to iron clothes (big if), I can always get out my full-sized iron board.