Better Home Challenge: Week Two

Time for another progress report on my January "guest room" challenge, and I think I've set an all-time personal speed record on this one. The bed quilt is finished! I started on Monday with this:

And here is the end result, finished on Friday. (Just out of curiosity, I kept track of my time. From cutting to piecing to pinning to quilting to binding -- 26 hours, 15 minutes.)

I was lucky again fabric-wise. Halfway into making the blocks, I realized I was short of the cream print. (sigh) When I went back to the store for more -- the bolt was gone. (groan) BUT when I checked the remnant bin, I found the end of the bolt. (yes!) It was just over a half yard, and turned out to be exactly enough to finish the top. (whew!) Best $1.39 I ever spent.

My only regret on this quilt, I wish it were just a bit wider, so it had a little more drop on the sides. Of course if it were, I wouldn't have had enough of that cream print, so... all for the best, I suppose.

I really scrimped on this quilt, only purchasing the cream fabric ($14.67 on sale, plus the $1.39 remnant) and extra-wide flannel for the back ($18.19 with a 40% off coupon). The batting is an old acrylic blanket we received as a wedding gift 25+ years ago. It was a super warm blanket, but just didn't look very good anymore. It made fantastic batting! It was a heavy beast to quilt, but it's so thick and cushy and WARM. I love it! Kind of makes me wish I had more old blankets around.

On Friday, I blogged about the antique cradle I've moved into this room, and the first steps of the cradle makeover.

Over the weekend, I polished the cradle up with some paste wax (I don't think it shows in the pictures, but the waxing really did brighten up the wood) and made a little cradle quilt from some of my leftover quilt fabric.

The border fabric on the cradle quilt is the very last bits leftover from this applique quilt I made a year ago for the UFO Challenge. It would have been a perfect fit for this room, but it's not large enough for the bed and too large for the wall space. (Come to think of it, the sashing on this quilt is the same fabric I used for the guest room curtain... I may have to find a way to use it in there yet.)

So that's where things stand right now. I still want to make some pillow shams, possibly a couple of throw pillows, and I'm debating on bumper pads for the cradle. It also needs some wall decor, but that should be about it and I think I'll be able to call this room finished.

Good thing, too. I'll need the rest of the month to get my house back together. Much as I try to avoid it, when I dig into one big project, everything else goes to heck. LoL Small price to pay, though, for one honest-to-goodness FINISHED room. :o)