It's About Time: A WIP Wednesday Edition

So, I am finally blogging!  Between the holidays, traveling, a birthday, finishing three quilts (with deadlines), and the kids being out of school a couple of extra days it was pretty much impossible, but here I am now.  I actually have a few project finishes to blog about but that will have to come a little later.  I am pretty wiped tonight.  I just wanted to talk a little about what I want to finish up in 2014.  I have mentioned so many times before that I am notorious for having so many (too many) WIPs and I don't think I am the only one, right?!?!  This year I want to try and stay focused and make my WIP pile quite a bit smaller.  Last year I managed to accumulate a number of quilt tops, so I want to get those finished.  I have two half quilted quilts....ridiculous, and a bunch of other projects.  I want to not take on too much and get some of the things I have already started finished.

One of the projects is a super cute dress (Oliver and S Fairy Tale Dress) I started for the Goob probably around this time last year that I need to finish. 

I sort of got on a selfish sewing kick for a while there and haven't made anything for the kids!  Then again the only one who will wear anything I make now a days is the Goob and me, of course.  The older ones are are at a stage now where it isn't cool anymore...oh well, pajamas are still game though!  One thing that is going to make staying on track pretty difficult is all of the awesome books and patterns I got for Christmas.  I, of course, now have an even longer to go list, but I am not really complaining. (And thank you family!)

I did want to mention a little project I started the day before Christmas eve, because my sister's gift did not arrive in time.  I had some pretty bad luck with the USPS this year for the holidays.  I had my sister's gift not arrive, a few customers did not receive packages for WEEKS (with one missing items), I never received the Christmas cards I ordered, and we got one mangled and in pieces Christmas card from my husband's cousin in a plastic bag printed with an apology note from the USPS.....pretty crazy if you ask me.  I did however, receive my shipment of Charley Harper canvas from Birch fabric right before Christmas and immediately started cutting it up to make some little zippered pouches to replace the missing gift for my sister.  She is a big Charley Harper fan so it was perfect!  I managed to finish the bags in time, but forgot to take pictures...luckily I cut enough to make two bags of each size and print.  I only managed to finish one of them since then, however the other two are now on my WIP list.  I will hopefully knock those out soon since they are pretty darn fast and everything is cut and ready to sew.

Next, I will try and finish up the quilt I have been trying to finish for years.  I have it about 2/3 quilted and the binding is already cut...wish me luck.  That one will be a big finish and a load off.  Then I want to finish the mermaid penny patch I made for the quilt along at Stitched in Color. 

I ended up ordering fabric from Spoonflower of the back, because I realized that I had the book, Heather Ross Prints and it comes with a CD with jpegs of some of her prints.  The mermaid print that was the inspiration for the quilt top is one of those jpegs!  I was super excited but wanted to make sure I got it right because Spoonflower is not cheap, so I order a sample first, just to make sure.  I also ended up scaling up the size of the print which I think will look great on the back of the quilts since it will be a large area. 

It took a little while to wait for the sample and then order the fabric , but I have it now and my commissioned quilts are done and out of the way, so I can try and finish this one as well.  I ended up really liking the mermaid penny patch and I hope the Goob does as well....she loves mermaids and pink!

Well, I won't ramble any longer, but I will say that I hope 2014 brings a number of WIP finishes for me and perhaps some successes in my creative endeavors.  Here's to a good year....

This post is linked up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.