Corona-cation Update: Somtimes it takes a pandemic....

....to recharge your sewing mojo!  So the good news is that I've been able to push myself back to the table --- the sewing table that is!  First off, I FINALLY was able to finish the Valentine's Day pillow covers.  Woo hoo!

The design was courtesy of Minki Kim's Bernina -Well All Sew tutorial from last February.

I am very happy with how they look and of course now can't understand why I was in such a twist about the binding.  Well no, I do remember -- even though the sliver of the pink faux piping looks good to me now, I had originally envisioned it being a little more visible but had major trouble trying to get it that way.

I'm now satisfied that I settled on moving forward with it as is.  I'm a little bummed I wasn't able to get good contrast with the stitching around the hearts.

While it's hard to tell unless you are right up on them, both are hand outline stitched and this was another part of this project that was done multiple times!  I started out doing it in a pink Perle 5 thread, first in Big Stitch style then pulling those stitches out to re-do them using smaller stitches.  Unfortunately, I found that either way the contrast just wasn't enough.

I felt that it was important to keep to the color scheme so if not pink then trying it with a rust or brown thread was the way to go.  I stitched one of the covers again starting with a Rust Perle 8 I had using Big Stitch (nope), then small.  It was okay but still not great.  Rather than pulling it out just yet, I went with an olive-brown Perle 12 thread (all I had) on the second cover.  Too thin,  so I redid it again with the thread doubled.  Again, just okay but still not great.  By this time I was tired of not moving forward on it and decided to leave both as is and move forward onto the binding because I could always go back and re-stitch them later if I wanted.

Well I already reported on the subsequent binding frustrations and hence why this (and everything else) wound up sitting for two  weeks!  However, right now I think they look fine and will have no problem pulling them out again next year for the holiday.  I'm thinking now that a true olive green Perle may be the ticket for the contrast stitching but right now that thread is bundled up with another project kit.  More importantly, the holiday has passed and these are done so will stay so until next year!

I also pieced together the backing of the Girl Scout Quilt adding in the label.

With that done, I'm hoping to quilt it over the weekend.  The Kente at the upper left will be used to make the hanging sleeve to be added after the quilting.  I will be making it so that they can either display the quilt or be able to carry it walking in a parade.

However, before I can get to the quilting, I want to get the past due BOM work out of the way.  That's a story for another post.......

P.S.  I had YouTube videos playing while sewing and I learned that Gudrun Erla of GE Designs will be hosting a live "Quarantine Quilt Along" this Sunday on Facebook!  She will have quilting guests visiting during the day, one of which will be Bonnie Hunter!  Gudrun will share a new pattern (which will be available Saturday) and have "quilty goodies" for those that tune in.  Check out her blog for all the details!