Friendship Pillows

This year, for holiday gifts, I made several friendship pillows. Pillows are a great way to show off machine embroidery, along with quilting and patchwork!

The machine embroidered center of each pillow is a digitized design by my friend Shelli at Needle In A Haystack Designs called "True Friend Sampler"...Shelli does designs for both hand and machine embroidery - her digitized designs for machine embroidery are available at SWAKembroidery.com...and many of her hand embroidery patterns are available online at Pine Needles. I used beautiful rayon machine embroidery threads to match the fabrics I chose for each recipient...and embroidered the design on a natural unbleached single face quilted muslin fabric.

The patchwork/assembly part of each pillow is my own design. I used my AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter to cut 2.5" squares (in some cases I used a mini charm pack) and 1.5" strips of cotton quilting fabric to frame the embroidery. I used an envelope pillow back with a Velcro closure...and even serged the inside raw edges to make the pillow covers washable.

I am thinking of putting together a few of these for my Etsy shop and already have several of the embroideries completed...you know, for my shoppers needing a handmade gift for a friend...

If you are a quilter or sewer/sewist, I hope this post will encourage you to add a little hand or machine embroidery to your next project....

The Early Bluebird...

Happy Wednesday friends and followers! It is a warm, sunny day here and we are getting ready to put lunch on the grill, but I thought I would check-in with a quick update first. I managed to finish a very small quilting project last night - an appliqué wall hanging. I actually started this project weeks ago and have not had any spare time to turn on the sewing machine....after picking up some fun/new stash and projects on my road trip last week, I really want to get my in-progress projects done, so I can start something fresh and new. I have one LARGE quilting project left to finish (something for a very dear friend) and then I can play with some new ideas. This project is called "The Early Bird" and is part of the Skinny Mini Wall Hanging Series from Country Traditions in Fremont, NE...I have done several of these satisfying projects...the kit contains everything you need, with the exception of backing fabric and batting - but at a finished size of 5" x 15", those supplies are easily found in my stash. Normally, I make these projects "my own" and cut a lot of the appliqué a little differently by using one of my AccuQuilt Fabric Cutters...but this one, I actually did as directed, using the appliqué patterns provided. I thought it turned out super cute...a perfect tiny quilt for my spring/summer decorating.

I have been cross stitching up a storm in quiet moments (which are few), working on my special "pink" project...and I have the main part of the design complete...just working on a few small extras and last minute details...I should an update and photos for you soon!

Schatzi continues to grow leaps and bounds...here is a recent photo from last night - she is twelve and a half weeks old and over 30 pounds...and yes, she should grow into those ears!...and she can finally wear her pink camouflage collar. She is keeping me on my toes...and although she is a complete handful, I have already grown quite attached to her...I will just be much happier when she is out of the "puppy phase" which is quite exhausting...

Well, I am off to get lunch started and mark off a few to-do items before my husband leaves for work...I now have to prioritize my day around the puppy (I never thought I would be saying that!)...