Finishes! October Edition

Yep, lots o' finishes around here!

FINISHED: My Pacific Crest quilt.

It's now the couch quilt. You may recall I was planning on listing it on Etsy. Good thing I didn't, because the fleece I put on the back is pilling all over the place, AND the quilting stitches have been popping out left and right!

I spoke to some others about it and it sounds like it's because all of my quilting stitches were diagonal in one direction, so nothing is anchoring the fabric weft/warp/whatever in the cross direction and it's easy to put too much pressure on it and pop those stitches. Oh well. If it gets bad enough I'll just slap it back in the machine and add some stitches going the opposite direction. It's a great couch quilt because we can both sit on opposite ends of the couch and still fit under it. (We have had many couch blanket tug-o-wars in the past!)

FINISHED: Last-minute Halloween quilt.

Just in time for next week's wedding! I know you still can't see the quilting, but it's there and it's cool! (And I got help holding it up for my photo op for once!)

FINISHED: Fox and Hedgehog pillow!

Elizabeth Hartman has convinced me that I need to quilt all of my pillow covers. I still resent how much extra time it takes, but it adds a lot of sturdiness and looks prettier. Arnav promptly claimed this for the couch too.

Quilting this put me way outside my comfort zone. I NEVER do all-over designs that cover my main motif, and I NEVER use a largely contrasting thread. That thread is bright teal! I am glad I pushed myself. I almost stopped and ripped it all out when I got to this guy:

The stitches were just SO prominent and each error so noticeable! But I'm glad I pushed through because I think the finished pillow turned out quite nice.

FINISHED: My applique class!

I'll be honest: this class was a real let-down. Only three people came! And I spent a loooooong time preparing, and look at all the supplies I brought! (Oh, and all of the example quilts, AND all of the applique books...)

I didn't do this to earn money, I did it to share my love of applique with others. And when I came away from the class I didn't feel like I had accomplished that. One person already loved needle turn and took it just to do more applique, and I don't think the other students came away feeling excited and enthused about applique.

But, it's done. And now I can clean up the class supplies that have been strewn all over the sewing room, and move on. I won't be trying to teach a class anytime soon.

Finished: Halloween shrug!

So I'm going to this Halloween wedding and my dress is black and I have these gorgeous pink shoes I really want to wear. And the black dress needed some flare and something to tie to together with the shoes. So I stitched up this little "shrug." I'm happy with how it came out! As always happens when I attempt non-quilting sewing projects, it took waaaay longer than it should have, but in the end it all worked out. Plus check out these cute pink glitter spiders that are on it!

Not Finished: Anything else.

I didn't get very much at all accomplished at this year's guild retreat. In large part it was because of back-to-back classes on Saturday. I taught my class, had a quick lunch, then took a class on improv piecing. My pieces are the blue and lime ones to the right.

By the end of the improv class, it was almost 5 pm! And honestly I was worn out and discouraged from my class, so I did very little sewing Saturday night. Instead I went home and curled up in front of the tv for a viewing of Fantasia! Just the kind of thing to let my mind drift and decompress. On Sunday I got a little more sewing done. I'm neeeeearly finished with a pillow cover from my Patchwork City class. I was originally debating making my blocks into a quilt but I decided life's too short and I've got soooo many other projects. So whenever I finish this blog post, I am hopefully going to sit down in front of my machine and finish that pillow! (And then post some photos of it!)