Will this project EVER get finished?!!!

Do you have projects like that?  I usually tell people to start small so they don't get overwhelmed and quit before completion.  On this project, however, I did not take my own advice.

So what is the project?  Well, this is a little in-process photo I took.  It is the applique for a chair cover.  Not just any chair cover, though.  See my sister has seven kids.  And she asked me a while back if I could make something that gave each chair a name (assumedly so there were not so many squabbles over who sits where).

She has 12 dining chairs total, and if my math is correct, that's 9 family members plus 3 guests.  So I'm putting names on 9 and the other 3 will be different creatures.  (A frog, a cat, and a lizard - they live in Florida).  A while ago I scored some discounted vinyl at the Joann's in town.  Since most of the family is under 15, I wanted to make sure these were fully machine-washable and would stand up to a lot of abuse.

So I made most of the names out of vinyl with reverse-appliqued letters.  Praise God they turned out pretty good!  That was a LOT of work.  See, here's how it went.

First, I printed out the names.  Then traced them onto Freezer Paper (I love that stuff!).  Then I ironed the freezer paper right to the front of the vinyl. Beneath the vinyl is a fabric (fabrics for all of the names were different).  Took it to the sewing machine and stitched around each letter (like I said - a TON of work - most of it was hand-cranked instead of using the pedal).  Then for the fun part!

I took my itty bitty embroidery scissors and cut out the inside of each letter, to reveal that fantastic fabric underneath!  See how the vinyl makes those letters POP?!!!  Super coolness!!!

My sister is in town right now on vacation, and this was supposed to be her Christmas gift, but as you can see, it's not finished.  So I took her to dinner last night (thanks to husbands who took care of the kids!) and showed her first the fabrics, then each of the name/creature plates.  She was astonished.  Loved them.

So now, I just have to add the plates to the fabrics, make all 12 into pillowcase-style chair coverings, and hem.  No biggie, right, now that the hard part is over.  Should take me a bit less than the 6 months I've already been working on this project.  No problem - what are sisters for!
:) Caren