pillows and plates

For the last three weekends I have been taking a glass fusing class with my good friend Heather. It was something I bought from Groupon a year ago thinking it would be something fun and creative for us to do together, so back in August we decided that September was going to be our month to try it out.

I have to admit--it's not really my thing. I enjoy the creative atmosphere but for some strange reason I thought we would be learning glass blowing, which involves fire and danger and excitement. Finding out we were just going to be cutting out pieces of glass and sticking them on another piece of glass to have it melted down into a plate or a bowl was sort of a disappointment. But still, I made a few things and I think they'll turn out okay. So far the only thing I've gotten back is this, and it just makes me laugh looking at it. 

It's super shiny so I couldn't get a glare-less picture, but you get the gist. I could tell that all the old people who work there were like, "huh?" because in general most of what they produce looks like this:

Erm. Yeah. Not my thing.

This week I'm also FINALLY finishing binding my do. Good Stitches quilt which I am terribly late on and it's just been like this millstone around my neck for ages. I'm happy I could finally afford batting and got it all quilted up and the binding machine-sewn on this Monday. Now I'm in the process of hand-stitching the rest in place. Also, I finished my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap. 

Most of this was new territory for me. Raw edge applique, swirly quilts, a lot of improv patchwork...none of those are things I do regularly. So I hope it looks okay. Here it is all stuffed.

And a little detail shot of my extremely amateurish swirly quilting. That was just...hard. 

All in all I like it though, even if it's not something I would normally make that, for me, is part of the fun of doing swaps. How about you all? Made anything outside your comfort zone lately?