Awesome Weekend

I had SO much fun this weekend! I honestly had no idea what to expect at my quilting weekend... and it was so great. We went to a bunch of quilt shops (Portsmouth Fabric is my new favorite store) and basically just sat and sewed all weekend. Which may not sound like fun to most, but it really was awesome. The people were great, the town was cute and I made new friends. What else can you really ask for?

I made the silk jacket that I wanted to create out of the silk I got in China. It was so difficult to work with it, I can't even explain. The freaking silk sheds like a son of a bitch... and everyone was offering suggestions as to what I should do to stop this AFTER it seemed as though I couldn't repair it. I decided to go with a crazy quilt design... which means loads of seams. Which with cotton wouldn't be a big deal... but as the silk sheds, it runs out of fabric, and the seams rip. I can't even explain my frustration level with that! Fortunately, Amanda (different friend from the Knitting Amanda) suggested that I use fusible interfacing... which we were avoiding because it would change the hand of the jacket. I didn't care about the freaking 'hand' of the jacket, because at this point it appeared that the whole thing was just going to be a huge falling-apart failure. So after driving home from Portsmouth, I went to Quilters Way, and got the fusible web, ripped out the side seams, finished ironing on the interfacing (which DID stop the shedding, thank the gods), finished up the sleeves, and sewed in the lining.

And it was all good. I didn't need to burn the jacket (which I was getting close to doing)! I may even wear it to work tomorrow if I get a closure for it tonight.

In knitting news, I'm almost done with the Felted Vest for Aaron... I'm hoping to get to felt it tonight! That would be awesome.