I finished!!

I finished my place mats!!! *Happy Dance!!!* It helps so much to have a dedicated sewing area where I don't have to take anything down. Well, that and sewing for about 8 hours with few interruptions. :o) I thank my husband for that one. Since our dining room table was clean from Thanksgiving dinner, I just sewed my little heart out yesterday until dinner time. Then I saw that Celebrity Ghost Stories was new, and I had to watch. *Guilty pleasure* I was able to leave everything out and pick it back up this morning. And 6 bindings later.... I finished!!!! I'm so excited. One, because it's not Christmas Eve and I'm finishing them as family is arriving for dinner. And two, because I now have time for my other projects so that I may (hopefully) finish those before Christmas Day, too.

I have 10 ornaments that are ready to be quilted. Hopefully I'll finish those today.

I made these with leftover charm squares from my place mats and a border from a few fat quarters I picked up. There are 5 with a pinwheel center and 5 with a diamond center. I'm not sure if that block has a name.  :o)

And now....the place mats!!!!!

I used my two favorite fabrics to back 6 place mats each. (Sorry, I don't know their names, and would rather not go searching for them. They're both part of the Flurry line, though) I love the one on the left because it's very whimsical, and it combines pink and blue with the traditional reds and greens of Christmas. And the one on the right reminds me of all the Christmases we spent in Mexico when I was young. Poinsettias always do, for some reason. :o)

I should mention that I did a machine binding on all of them. No hand stitching whatsoever. Maybe because I'm a little intimidated, but probably because it's so much easier! About two days after my first binding trial, AmandaJean at crazymomquilts posted this and her results kind of, sort of equaled mine (but hers were WAY better) so I felt like I was doing it the right way. I don't mind that the sewing line shows on the back. Who's going to be looking at the back of the place mats anyway?  ;o)

Okay, I think that's it! I want to upload my pictures to Kate Spain's flickr group for Flurry projects, quilt those ornaments, and get started on the super last minute Christmas stockings that I decided would be a good idea. Like I didn't already have 6 trillion projects going on. Thanks a lot Craft Monster. ;o)