V-day Table Runner

Its done. Took me about a month when it really shouldn't have. I started quilting it with red thread on the back and white on the front but my machine was having fits with the tension so it looked horrible. So I went and ripped out all of the stitches.
I finally settled on this for the quilting....



It worked out kinda perfect actually.


Here is the back.



And in full disclosure my "Little Goofs" that I made on this quilt
1. The quilting like stated above
2. The binding, I somehow forgot to fold over the fabric before sewing it onto the quilt. It didn't end up being such a big deal because I just folded it over and ironed before sewing it onto the back.
3. I finished the morning after V-day...oops.

But #2 brings me to why I have a really difficult time finishing quilts...the binding. I ALWAYS have some sort of issue with it. This time it ended up looking fine in the end but I held myself up finishing it because I really had a hard time getting over my fear of binding. Something I'm sure I will get over with more practice.

2012

I have started 2012 kinda dragging my feet on the quilting front. I think being pushed against a wall to finish Christmas presents on time burnt me out. I go through these phases where I will sew and sew and sew and then one day I will just stop and go on a sewing hiatus for about 6 months or so. I really hope that this isn't happening now because I have so many neat ideas.

Tonight I gritted my teeth (so to speak) and conquered the walls I was starting to build up and started working on this...It is called Eclipse and hopefully soon that will be evident. I'm improvising on piecing this so we will see how it goes.

So to start this new year I have set some goals for myself quilting wise. Here they are in no particular order...
1. Try applique for the first time (that will come into play in eclipse)
2. Conquer my fear of triangles
3. Fully complete at least one lap size quilt (this may seem like a really small thing for some people but on average it takes me a year and half to do this and I have only done it twice)

Sure there are a few other goals but lets be realistic, I am in grad school and trying to graduate in May. That means I will be pushing out my thesis for the next few months. Then I will take on the daunting task of finding a job that utilizes the skills I have spent a good deal of money trying to learn. But right now I have free time in the evenings and hopefully I will have some time in once I do graduate (surrounding work hopefully) and I will try to use that wisely for quilting.