Pillow Talk, Set 2

Sometimes I will just be puttering about the house, minding my own beeswax, then all of a sudden get struck by a creative idea where anything I am doing at the moment must stop so that I can make whatever it is that instant.

When the idea is a simple one of making pillows using up scraps on hand, things go together pretty quickly ie. no shopping involved! I completely forgot to take "before" photos, but here are a couple of "afters."



This pillow was made using some old jeans I bought for a few dollars many years ago at a consignment store. The jeans were crazy looking, but I thought they would come in handy to use for something. The fronts of each leg were pieced with vertical strips of fancy fabric, alternately with denim. If you have ever cut up jeans before, intending to use them as big flat pieces of material, you will agree that it does not work that well unless you use smaller pieces, which is what I did. I used a small portion of the front of each leg, pieced them together to make the front of the pillow, and then used some cotton from my stash for the back. Voila! The pillow form is a very old bed pillow. The stuffing had decreased somewhat, so I just pushed it down to one end and sewed a new seam so the resulting pillow size is about 18 x 20 inches. I like my upcycled pillow!



I ran out of jeans to cut up for a second pillow, so I turned to my collection of embroidered and cross stitch table linens, picked up over the years from thrift stores and garage sales. The top half of this pillow was cut from a little runner that was stained in one section. I used the good part, incorporated some of the original lace edging, and combined it with a garden/bird print for a splash of more colour. I thought the bare spot under the arc of the embroidery could do with some text, so I penned in the word, "Bliss," because that's the feeling I have when I create something beautiful (yes, then truly that feeling would be "blissful," but the noun works better in this case, thank you). Love x 3!

Pillow Talk, Set 1

This year, I've been making a concerted effort to make my bed every day. Never used to be a priority, but lately I have noticed the pleasure I have when I walk into my room and see the bed all neat and tidy. It's satisfying, and adds a degree of serenity to my day when I look at it.

A new duvet cover helped a lot, I admit, to ensure my daily task gets completed. A beautiful indigo blue, all cotton, from India, but I thought I would add some light coloured square (25" x 25") pillows to brighten and balance the blue and green (sleeping pillows) from the gorgeous cherry headboard.

I picked up some cotton muslin from IKEA (as well as the pillows) to put together a simple pillow cover. To dress it up a bit, I looked through my button collection for inspiration.



On the front of the pillow, I plotted out a 3 x 3" square in the centre of one side, and reinforced the back with foundation paper applied with fusible web to make a sturdy sewing surface.

Then I sorted out buttons, and on the reinforced 3x3 square, I sewed the reds onto one pillow cover:



and on the other pillow cover, the yellows (with some gold):



And here we are, my made bed, complete with button-embellishments!

Spring loaded runners!

Trying to bring some more colour into my dining room, I thought I would whip up a runner or two (well.....two).

This is a kit from the Cloth Shop, supplied as materials to make the top, and binding. I love cutting and piecing, so when I finally was "in between" projects in the knitting department, I put this together pretty fast. The finishing touches of ironing done while watching hockey, the handsewing of the binding done while watching badminton. This line of fabric contained a panel which is what this runner is built around. Makes for very fast piecing, not to mention almost instant gratification!



I had some leftovers of these chock-a-block full-on colours-and-florals-anyone? fabric combo, blending nicely (and loudly) into my late spring/summer runner. This is a blast which will sing in the dining room. Go me!

Stripe Crazy

Crazy Zauberball pair #2 is done, using this beautiful, outrageous yarn (Schoppel Wolle).



Miss M decided she would model the socks wearing my shoes, a la Cookie A.




I do love the striping. Since the colour repeats are so long, there is no pooling whatsoever over the gusset increases. The changes are subtle, and with so many, the effect is extraordinary. Watching the colours emerge keeps one motivated. (Then why did these take me six weeks to knit, I ask? Let me just point out that the sugar maple shawl punctuated my sock journey!)

Noro is the other favourite striping yarn we all know and love for its long colour repeats. This pair was knit with Kureyon Sock, with a side cable to jazz things up. These colour changes are working for me! I love that blue.

i

Sun Break