in the middle of it all

Quite literally in the middle of April, the ides so to speak, and in the midst of the legislative season, this got done.

I started this a hilariously long time ago, 6 months or so. Much to my surprise I haven't had the luxury of time to sew during this fellowship. (I can't decide if that's sarcastic or not.) I will admit, part of the reason was that I hadn't brought my iron up with me and I just couldn't see finger pressing all the seams I needed to get this done. I have since bought a lovely NEW iron and finished this in an afternoon. 

I was originally thinking of hand quilting to outline each of the navy stars, but settled on quilting a grid in orange thread instead. I'm glad I did because it ended up adding a bit of a 3D optical illusion to the stars that I like very much. I set my machine on the longest stitch it would let me do, so it ends up looking like unusually tidy hand quilting, anyway. 

I even conquered my reticence to install zippers! This orange zipper simply pops on the back, and much to Dave's relief means the pillow is actually DONE. (I may or may not have had other pillows to sew closed that stayed that way for …. a while.) It's living happily on my bed/couch now. Score one for Sacramento sewing!