On the positive side

The sun was out today and the sky was blue!!!

I have to say just that is enough to warrant a blog post, in my opinion. But I'm also positively pleased with my newly finished plus-sign pillow:

I followed this tutorial over at Jaceycraft; it is really simple to put together, although laying out my squares was a lot like working on a puzzle (which was kind of fun). Once I had my layout, the sewing went quickly. The fabric came from some charm packs of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic and I quilted it in an arced pattern to mimic the circles in one of the rings. I basically tied a string to a pencil and pivoted around one of the corners. I quilted down that line using a walking foot and then echoed it. I used a lined envelope backing and bound it with 2 1/4" wide strips. I didn't want a really wide binding, but it if I am going to try 2 1/2" wide strips next time. There are four layers of fabric where the two backing pieces overlap, plus the quilted front so it was a bit of a challenge getting the binding folded over all of that far enough to cover the seam line.

Here is my attempt at an artsy shot:

I'm finishing something up for Giveaway Day which starts on Monday - I hope you'll come back then.

e.