sequintastic!

Today is the big day for the Sequintastic September Blog Hop! (Can I hear a woop woop?) Also, my apologies for my lateness! I set this to auto-publish while I slept, and alas, technology failed me! BOO!

This should not have been that hard of a project, but it really was. I waffled like mad on the design, went back and forth between different fabric lines and ideas, perused sequin shopping sites like no girl's business, and got really flustered over the whole affair! I finally sat back and focused on things I really really like, and after a bit of perusal on flickr, I stumbled across this table runner and found myself mesmerized. I'm kinda obsessed with pinwheels, and I loved the sharp white against the green. My initial thought was, how do I get me one of these, and like yesterday? Except that white on my table was not gonna happen in my house. Not with my oldest kidlet's newfound love of peanut butter.

But! I happen to be working on this quilt for my bed...and I had some leftover fabric...and I thought to myself, why not a pillow to match? Of course, I should probably finish the quilt first, but this seemed like an excellent opportunity, and I can't turn my back on that! So, I went with it and came up with this:

 

Oh yes, Friends. Those are pink sequins in the corners. I probably could've gone all out and sewn the entire border, but as this was my first time working with any sort of quilt embellishment, I thought I'd take it slow. 

I was surprised by how easy the sequins were to work with! Yes, I spent 3-4 hours on these two small patches, but it was my first time, and I definitely picked up speed as I moved along. I also didn't draw out the design entirely in advance, so I would sew up a small section, then draw a bit more, and so on. I tried a few different stop techniques, including the Stop Bead Method and the Two Loop Method. I also did a bit of experimentation with layering smaller sequins on top of larger sequins, but my camera isn't known for its magnificent close-up photographs, so you'll have to take my word on it. 

I used an envelope back closure--a standard Audrey move--but I pieced the back panels because I ran out of fabric for some added interest. The fabrics are Kona in Snow, Bella Solids in Jade, Kona in Pomegranate, a few prints from Tula Pink's Parisville line, and I picked up the peacock feathers at Joann Fabrics. The pillow measures 20" square.

 

And because I'm kinda nuts and learning to embroider with sequins wasn't enough of a challenge, I decided that now was the time to try my hand at handquilting. I handquilted the white portion of the pinwheels and 1/4" around the perimeter of the teal square. And oh my goodness. I had so much fun! While I can definitely see the advantage time-wise in machine quilting, I really enjoyed the process, and I love the way it looks. I can see more of this (small-scale) in my future. (I followed this tutorial from Susan, FYI, and it was quite informative.)

Thanks for stopping by my humble abode! And super big thanks to Sarah for hosting this blog hop. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, as I hope everyone else did! If you're not stopping by from the hop, and you'd like to see more of this sequin business, check out Saturday Sequins for a full list of participants.