Gettin' 'em done

A few years ago I figured my quilting skills had progressed enought that I could make quilted projects for Christmas presents for my coworkers.  So I made each one a table topper.  One block each, pretty simple, one-day projects.  They came out great.  You can see them all here on my blog.  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-presents-tt-galore.html  Then the next year came and some of my coworkers had left and I had new ones, so for the new ones, it was table toppers again, but for the ones who already had table toppers I gave them their choice of quilted projects.  Now a few picked small wall hangings.  Pretty easy, done in no time.  You can see some of them here  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2010/01/getting-finished-part-1.html and some more of them here  http://clkinmd.blogspot.com/2010/01/getting-finished-part-2.html But two of them picked table runners and they wanted them long.  So .... when Christmas got here I had the tops done, but not quilted.  This was before I got my longarm.  So I showed them their presents at Christmas and took them back to finish them. Well, that was three years ago.  Today I finished one of them.  I am so happy and I had forgotten how cute it was and how much I liked it.   If she checks facebook, she won't be surprised, but she doesn't usually, so next week this will be on the way to her house.  Hope she still has a use for it. Here's some close ups of the cute fabric that I fussy cut in the blocks and used in the borders.  I used a chicken wire design for the quilting.  I think it came out pretty good.   Now I still have one to do, and I need to go dig it out and finish it.  If I remember right, it was the prettiest fabric I ever used.  I paid someone to quilt part of it and I think all I have left is to stitch in the ditch and bind it.  I must be getting better at the hand-sewing part of binding because I'm starting to enjoy it, and I used to dread it terribly.  It's so nice to check things off my "Get 'em done" list.