Unfinished No More

Something that really bothers me is when I don't get to finish things that I start (or that other people don't finish what they start).  Having incomplete projects or tasks just slowly eats away at me in the back of my mind.  One of my main goals for 2019 is to try to complete at least those projects that rely on just me to get done.  In other words, if it's something I need DH's expertise or muscles for, those projects are not up to me alone, and so are ranked differently (those are on the "Wishful Thinking" list).

This weekend, I knocked one item off my Personal Projects list.  It was a mystery quilt that I participated one winter. It has been languishing, incomplete, first in a closet, then in a drawer, then promoted to sitting on the cedar chest in my bedroom--where I can see it daily--for a long time.  Like, I pieced this thing in January and February of 2013. 

Yep, an almost 6 year old UFO. 

Looking back, 2013 seems to be the year I started to lose it.  Organization, control of my house, etc. December 2012 is when we moved DD1 back home after only one semester of college out in Minnesota.  She'd been incredibly homesick, and the college out there wasn't as good of a fit as she'd thought it would be. But coming back home didn't mean going back to the old arrangement of sharing a room with her younger sister.  Nope, they had so many screaming fights that we ended up shuffling things around and giving DD1 her own space in the basement.

Moving back home meant bringing all her dorm stuff with her (cram that into my house).  And when she moved out again in August 2014, we had about one month reprieve before moving DS1, K2, K3, and Toad up from South Carolina to living with us.  Cram four people and about 1/2 their house into my house.  They were here for 18 months.  When they'd been on their own again for about a year (and I still hadn't gotten my house back to pre-2013 status in terms of cleaning, schedules, and organization--plus still had some of DD1's stuff and a few stray items of DS1's family), DD1 started moving her apartment into my house in preparation for living with us while she student taught at a nearby school district.  She stayed until after her wedding in May 2018, and while she now lives several hours away where she and Honorary Son are permanently employed, because they are renting a lot of her stuff still remains at this little place here.

Sigh.  And that, my friends, is how this relatively small project sat for six years before I got around to finishing it.

All it needed was a border, batting (which I've had for years), and backing fabric. I admit that it was probably the border fabric that delayed the project the longest.  The few times  over the years that I took my pieced top out and looked at it, I just couldn't find any fabric in my stash that I thought went well enough to be the border.  And then this summer, I found the most fabulously perfect backing fabric, and that gave me new insight into what a good border would be.  It just so happened that in the previous year, I'd picked up a small cut of fabric somewhere (garage sale?  thrift shop?  end of bolt bin at Walmart?) that was a good match with the backing and while not typically what I would of considered to coordinate with the front, it did go very well.  I think of the 'pattern' on that particular red piece of fabric as lava.  Hot, spewing lava. 

Anyway,  I got that small--45"x 45"--project completed in the last few days.  It is no longer a UFO.  Now it's a small quilt/accent piece/throw/something the grandkids are going to want.

Top

Loud lizard backing

Backing close up

That's a little bit of weight off my shoulders.  One less undone thing nagging at me.  And it's something bright to display in my house during these fairly dull gray winter months.