WIP Wednesday on Friday this week--focus on place-mats

I'm terrible at getting motivated to remove pictures from our camera. I finally took some pictures of the place-mats I'm working on and copied them from the camera. But only because I had the camera out to take some really cute pictures of my little girl for facebook.


Place-mats are still in the works. I have two completed, one that needs the binding hand stitched, and one that is still totally lacking the binding. I probably won't get these done until I can get to fabricland and purchase the thread I need to complete this. 

Now why would I take the time to do this? Especially sewing the binding by hand? Well...I'm about to finish my first very-own-all-by-myself quilt and don't want the binding to look like it was done by a "newbie" quilter. :$ 


Plus, I absolutely hate the wretched place-mats my hubby and I picked out when he got the table for the condo. They are super cute, but cleaning them is nearly impossible because of all the ridges and I really want to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives. So out comes some fabric from my stash that was meant for pillows (until I found two really awesome pillows at Pier 1). Now we are going from this:

Looks good, but virtually impossible to keep clean

To this (I made the napkins back in January or February):

To simply throw it in the washing machine to clean :o)
...and it isn't plastic! Yay

It's a little bit matchy, matchy with the binding fabric being the same as the napkins. But I totally love all the colours in this Liz Claiborne fabric and I'm really glad I've put my clearance fabric purchases to good use. 

New project addition this week:

* A Tinkerbell skirt for my niece Hayley. It's her birthday gift so I better get a move on!

Still in the works:
* Brown Bear, Brown Bear quilt. I need to get embroidery needles for my machine (and some thread) so I can satin stitch around the letters in the border. This will be my first time doing this so cross your fingers. I'll be practicing on a scrap piece first.
* My Asian bargello quilt. Just plugging away at it slowly enjoying the process.
* Some clothing alterations for my husband and I.
* Felt circle curtains. I need to get a piece of doweling to hang them from.
* My machine pieced cathedral window piece from the quilting course my Mom and I took as her  Mother's Day gift.


I better finish something this weekend so I can start something else! :oP