More Finishes for 2009

This is actually a finish from 2008 although I finished it after Halloween of course! I don't usually buy novelty fat quarters but once in a while they really attract me. But then deciding what to do with them is always an issue. I thought that this simple block worked well for a table mat or a small wall hanging.

So I made one with this airplane fabric. I actuallly like this one better I think because there really wasn't anything that could be fussy cut for the center square on the Halloween fat quarter like the plane in this one. And it is a 2009 finish!

I also finished a couple of small items I had pinned on my last basting binge. The office complex where I work has a Christmas crafts bazaar every November. One of the things I have learned over the years is that unless you are selling quilts to quilters you can't sell them for very much. Non quilters just have no concept of the cost of the ingredients let alone the time it takes to make a quilt. So in recent years I have added quite a few small items that I make from scraps -- even scrap batting. They are fun and quick and they can be sold for very little. They sell quite well. So here is the first 2009 addition to this stock.

And here is the second. This one has musical instrument fabric as the theme fabric. This fabric was given to me and is a little heavy for quilting. It is what I used to call kettle cloth when I sewed clothes in high school. That's another thing non quilters don't understand -- people at work frequently give me scraps that they inherit or something thinking that any fabric would be great for quilting. Polyester gets donated right away but if there is any possiblity of doing something like this I hold on to it. This one has kind of a masculine look I think.

And last, but not least, here is a picture of the penny mat that I use on my dining room table as a runner. Linda, in comments, (yay, I got a comment) asked to see more of it and here it is. I think I mentioned that I travel quite often on business and this came from a small shop in Ft Lauderdale when I was there on business a few years ago. And don't get excited, I was there in the summer. I never seem to be able to go anywhere in the right season. Anyway, I have seen this same penny mat in magazines and on other blogs so it must have had wide distribution at some point. There was a little quilt shop on one side of the street and a country type gift store on the other. I visited both several times during several trips but of course cannot remember the name of either. I usually throw the yellow pages in my rental car and go hunting when I am on the road. Sometimes I get totally lost and find nothing and other times I find wonderful places. You just never know!