I'm not sure where my quilting mojo had gone, but it seemed to have been gone for quite a long time. (There are other blog posts about this quilt.) I think that Covid had something to to with it.  Every month for about a year prior to Covid, I had attended a quilt night at a quilt shop I really enjoy shopping at.  The night was from 5-11:00, and included dinner.  You could bring whatever project you were working on and get help with it, use the large tables, irons, etc.  I think this simple night once a month kept me really going on some of my projects because I would prepare things to bring with me to the quilting night.  Well, the quilting night was scheduled for March 20th, about a week after everything shut down in Massachusetts.  This was the quilt I had been working on during those Friday nights, and I seemed to just kind of stop working on it or any other quilt for a long time.  I would pick up a project every once in a while, but nothing with any regularity or enthusiasm.  Finally finishing this has really gotten me back on track!  Usually I tend to finish projects seasonally, but with this I'm not worried about that! There are some mistakes in it where I wasn't paying attention to the direction of the fabric, which I am okay with.  I quilted it on my domestic machine, which was the first time on this machine for quilting, and I love how it turned out.  I am also really happy with the binding, and while the quilt is not perfect, I am so, so happy that this quilt is completed!!!!

I really love how this piece turned out.  When completing finishing on stitching, I tend to finish into something sewn or have it framed.  For this, I tried something a little different.  The stand is made for holding up a picture frame.  I used some greenery and a little doily as a decoration, and then completed a flatfold for the stitched piece.  The edges of the flatfold I lined with a ribbon and attached it by sticking red and green stick pins into it.  I'm not sure where the pattern was from, I think that it was a freeebie that came with an order from a cross-stitch shop many years ago.  I used three colors of a white, green and red overdyed floss that I had in my stash.  

I am so so pleased to present this project!  I love the way that it turned out.  It is a lined vest.  I have never completed a project like this before.  Here are some of the details:   

• I constructed this in a size medium.  I would say that the shoulders have a wide design.  I have narrow shoulders, so I think that it worked okay for me, but it is definitely not a style for everyone, and when I was constructing it, I was afraid it looked a little bit like armor! 
• The pattern is Butterick 5359 in view E.  
• I lengthened the vest by five inches. 

I was originally going to use a thick faux fur to construct this, for a class I was taking with Master the Art of Sewing.  The class was designed to learn a variety of faux fur techniques.  However, I didn't think that the fabric I selected for the class was really the kind of faux fur to use for the class.  This fabric that the vest is constructed into is more of a wooly fabric, and wouldn't lend itself well to the faux fur techniques class.  I decided to go ahead and make the vest with the fabric.  I did purchase a more traditional, thick faux fur for the class, and I think I am going to use a different pattern that has a more narrow silhouette in the shoulders. (I'll be working on sewing that over the next few weeks.)  

The pattern was pretty straight forward until it came to inserting the lining.  It was so complicated, and the directions were not very clear at all, so I actually found a youtube video that sort of addressed this kind of lining, and with a lot of patience and persistence I finally figured it out.  I really love the lining fabric, and I think that it works really well.  It is a stain material.  Regarding the outside of the vest, the fabric was segmented into three sections with a different thickness of the 'wooliness'.  Why I lengthened it was so that I could use the different textures of wool.  

Thank you so much for reading about this garment sewing project! 

These sweet little ornaments are by JBW Designs, one of my all time favorite designers.  I apologize, I'm not sure what the name of this design is, but it came with the little ornaments already assembled.  The little pieces of linen were stitched, and then attached to the small ornament.  Here was my process for doing the finishing: 

1. I used a very hot iron to fold under the edges of the ornament. 
2. I then used a cream color thread (80 weight so that it would not be visible) and sewed the stitched piece on to the pillow, taking very tiny stitches so that they would be invisible.  
3. I then attached the buttons to the four corners with two strands of DMC floss. 
4. Next, I cut four squares of quilt batting the size of the ornament.  The back of the ornament has a slip pocket in the back that I slid the layers of batting into.  This made the ornament have a little bit of thickness.  
5. On the back side of the ornament, I used a thin weight green thread to sew the edges of the flap together.  

I had these ornaments stitched, but had not actually finished them into the final piece.  I hate to say, but they had been in a semi-finished state for a few years!  I'm happy that they are completely done and can now display them.