In December of 2008 I blogged about Finished Objects.  I shared my idea of keeping track of projects I have completed.  I also talked about my plan of at least visiting my sewing room most days of the week so that I will be motivated to start projects.  Have any of you followed this plan?  Have you seen an increase in your own productivity?

I was away from home for half of July, so really missed my sewing room.  However, I more than made up for my absence in August and September.  My spreadsheet tells me that I finished 13 items during each of those months, and September isn't over yet.  I may be able to sneak in one more project.  The list includes 9 eyeglass cases, 2 purses,  2 wall hangings, 2 pillows, 2 neck roll covers, 1 water bottle caddy, a pincushion and some pouches.

Here are just a few of the I projects I completed in September.  I tried a new thread for the Lisi eyeglass case.  It is a twist of red and black threads, made by Robison-Anton.  The red color is a bit toned down compared to a solid red.  I sized the Contour Script letters bigger than usual, since Lisi is such a short name.

I used my favorite Superior Rainbows #813 for the eyeglass case for cousin Susan. She saw my tote bag with my name in that thread and really liked it.  I was happy to make her an eyeglass case with the design.  When I showed my projects at my sewing guild
meeting last week, a Susan at the meeting asked if this eyeglass case was for her.  I had to disappoint her, but think I will surprise her with a piece of fabric with her name embroidered just like this.  She already knows how to make the eyeglass case since I
taught the project at one of our meetings.

I also offered to make my cousin a fleece neck roll cover.  Her bedroom is decorated in cream (which is the color of the fleece) and green and bronze, so I suggested arranging her initials in Contour Cut-Outs with a bigger initial in the middle and the two smaller initials in a different color.  I did use a water soluble topper this time.  You can see the shine in the picture of the whole neck roll cover.  The closeup photo was taken after a trip through the washing machine.

This water bottle caddy is for a friend of my daughter.  She asked me to make it and I whipped it up the same day.  I used my Fancy Jumbles alphabet in the colors my daughter requested.  The friend thanked me for embroidering on the water bottle caddy.  He didn't even notice it was home made.  That felt very good to me.

I have been playing with a different type of embroidery design lately.  I created an angular V shaped outline and repeated it multiple times using the Encore feature in my embroidery software.  I then reordered the colors to stitch in color wheel order.  A
variegated thread would give much the same look but the six different colors of thread I used this time give a very "orderly" progression of colors.  The purse I made with the design is 7" square by 3" deep, just big enough for a night out!

I hope you will all share your tips for starting and finishing projects.  We are entering the busy season for sewing, and you never know which idea will help another sewing friend zip through her list of gifts to make.