Pillow Talk

Earlier this week, I finished several pillows to send to my mother for her birthday...I had fun working on three pillows for her...and I am so glad I got them completed before my sewing machine needed to go in for repair.

SIDE NOTE: yep, my sewing/embroidery machine experienced a little hiccup yesterday and had to make a trip to the doctor today - she needed a little TLC...it turned out to be a simple belt issue and I was extremely relieved - I made it home and managed to sew for about 10 minutes before the exact same thing happened again...ugh. My dealer is about an hour and a half away, so I couldn't be more discouraged - the sewing machine tech will not be in until Monday morning, so Monday we have an appointment to head back and have the belt put back in place. Boohoo...my whole weekend without my fancy schmancy sewing machine...good thing I have a big cross stitching deadline to keep me busy!

Okay, enough about that whining - back to the pillows. The one in the top right photo with the tree button is a small pillow - maybe 3" x 3"...my mother has an adorable tiny rocking chair that belonged to my grandparents, so I thought it would be cute to send her a little patchwork pillow to display with it for the holidays. The two larger pillows (below) are 9.5" x 9.5" - the Redwork stitching is actually machine embroidery from an older Inspira Redwork Collection with the cutest designs (I just love them!). After the embroideries were completed, I cut them into 6.5" blocks and added 2" dark red print border strips....then backed them with a fun red and white print (hearts) and stuffed them firmly. I thought they finished up extra cute...and turns out, they matched my mother's living room perfectly. I figured she could use the one with the ice skating mouse during the winter...and the one with the rabbits gathering vegetables in the spring/summer....and if she wants, she can turn one around and show the red heart print for Valentine's Day.

I managed to get quite a few snowflakes and ornaments machine embroidered before the aforementioned "belt issue", so look for those this weekend - I just have to get them photographed and added to my Etsy shop...

My two new Blue Ribbon Designs ("Berries, Birds, and Blooms" and "Sunflower Serenade") that are being released in the very near future are at the printer and I will see a proof on Monday - once they are good to go, I will determine the exact release date information and post about the specifics - stay tuned...

It has been an incredibly busy (and somewhat frustrating) week...and I am now off to my stitching nest...I will be having a late night model stitching marathon!