Bonus!

I tend to make a lot of piano key borders, and I don't always measure how much I need, nor particularly care if I have extra. I always find a way to use the excess, even when there is a LOT of excess border.

I made a bunch of blue/green/brown quilts, and I had originally planned to put piano key borders on several of them. As it turned out, I only put piano key borders on a couple of them, so I had way too much piano key border left over. No problem, I simply made the piano keys into a quilt of it's own. I finished sewing the quilt top together today (mostly because it was in my way), and now it's hanging in the quilt closet, where it will stay until I get around to quilting it. I have three deadline quilts still to get done this year, and this isn't one of them. I don't plan on adding borders to this quilt, it seems fine as is. Eventually, I'll get it quilted, but for now, it's fine hanging out with a few other UFO's.

One thing I've started doing with my finished quilt tops is measuring them, writing down the dimensions, and pinning it to the corner of the quilt. This way if I want to piece a backing, or piece some batting to fit, it's easy to see what size I need. I've been using skirt hangers to hang my ironed quilt tops, and I've had great luck with not having to do much re-pressing when I am ready to pin-baste. The measurement notes are helping with that too, since I don't have to keep handling the quilt top to see if the batting or backing are large enough. I don't find ironing large quilt tops or backings much fun, so if I can keep from having to do it over and over again, so much the better!

Now I need to get focused back on my other projects. I still have two queen/king quilts to finish this year, plus a smaller one, and several other projects. Half the year is over, and I feel the clock ticking. I tried to keep my to-do list down this year, but as usual, it's gotten away from me, and I'm not sure I'll get everything done I'm wanting to do. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets too ambitious with their project list. I've seen several quilts lately that I'd like to make, but I'm making myself refrain from starting something else new. Even my leaders/enders I'm trying to limit to quilts already started.

Hopefully now that I've gotten that quilt top out of my way, I'll be able to get back in the routine of being home. That vacation we took has just completely thrown me off, and I'm fighting to get back to normal.