Pillow Covers

I showed the pillow covers in the previous post but thought 

I would talk a little about them and show some close up photos too.

I was struggling with what exactly to make.  

I happened to find some amazing trim that was in the clearance section of JAF and thought it would be fun to use that on a gray background.  

I happened to have some sparkly linen that was the perfect background for this!

I did stitching in-between each row of trim and just stitched the trim down.  

Pretty basic.

The next one I found this amazing sheer, rosette fabric.  

I knew as soon as I saw it that it would make a great pillow cover, again without a lot of work.  

I did put it on a lining of plain gray fabric prior to making the pillow cover.  

I used fabric for the back that said "Made with love". 

 I really like how it turned out.

I bought half a yard of the rosette fabric and it was actually enough to get 2 pillow covers out of.  

I have not made the second one yet, but plan to do that and keep it for myself!

This gives you an idea of the size.  If I remember this one was 20".

The other one (that she is holding upside down) is 24"

Then I new that I had to make some that were a little more complex.  

I was thinking that they wanted me to stick with their gray and white theme but she kept showing me pillow covers with lots of teal so I determined that I would add some teal to the next one.  

I love the circle of geese pattern and since I have been honing my FPP skills, 

this pattern now goes MUCH more quickly.

 I didn't think to take process photos so this is the closest I come to those.  

I wanted the geese to be in a gradient and I think it is pretty well a gradient look.

It needed something additional to make it over the top.  

I decided to get some pearl cotton and hand quilt around the geese and then around the whole thing.  

I am not a fast hand quilter.  

This little pillow took me over 3 hours!  

That was using these chunky stitches too.

I have to say that I love the look of it though.  

This is the sandwiched top when I was finished quilting it, before I pressed it.

Here is the whole pillow cover all finished and ready to be stuffed.  This finished at 18".

I had been working on an embroidery for some time off and on.  

I was not sure what I would actually do with it once done except knew it would go to my daughter, the fisheries biologist.  

I scrambled to get it finished and make it into a pillow cover. 

 This is the finished embroidery prior to doing anything else with it.  

I LOVE this so much!!

Next up was to find some fabric to border the embroidery with.  

I had this cool raindrop fabric in my stash and it was perfect.  

This is actually the back of the cover too (in this photo)

I struggled to decide how to quilt the top but settled on circles.  

It's like when a drop falls into water it makes rings.  

I decided I would use that theme for the pillow cover too.  

I then added some hand quilting around the embroidery to help it stand out.  

I used a variegated floss for this.  

This is a photo of the finished  pillow cover front.

It was my favorite of all 4 of the pillows.  This also finished at 18".

Side by side finished covers.

I think she loved this.  Look at her friend, Amy's face in this photo.  I love that girl too.

They seemed pretty pleased with these.

Now I flew down to NC so how to get the pillow forms there?  

I was not certain I could buy the sizes I wanted while there so I went on the JAF website and ordered the sizes I needed and had them sent to her house with my name on the box.  

I told her not to open the box.  

When I arrived I put the covers on the pillows.

I had bought some blue fish fabric and wanted to make one more cover, but feared I was out of time.  As it turned out, I packed more quickly than I thought I would and had a bit of time. 

 I decided to whip up the last cover (the night before I was flying out), 

sadly it would not have a pillow form.

I used a light gray stripe for front and back then the fish fabric for the bow.  

I have to send a form there this week so they can fill the cover with a pillow.

All and all I am super happy with how all of these came out.  

I might do a few things differently in the future of pillow cover making but I really like all of these.

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I have been so busy with the new camper that I have little to show.  

I did finish my stars and have sewn 33 sets of the setting squares but 

I forgot to take any photos of those.  

Last 4 stars of what I had to make.
Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

I thought I would show you my fisheries biologist daughter at work in the field.  

That right there is a 57 pound catfish!!!

I also have some pretty photos of some flowers in my garden to share.  

My coneflowers were gorgeous this year.

I planted a new foxglove and it is doing so well.  

My grandmother used to tell me the spots on the flowers were where 

the bees walked in with muddy feet!

I also had this little guy show up on my house too. 

Apparently you should not touch them as their "fur" can cause a rash.

Who knew?

I will be attending the AQS show in Grand Rapids tomorrow 

so hopefully I will have more to show next week.  T

hen we are off on another camping trip this weekend.  Trying to eek out the last bit of summer fun!

Please link up what YOU have been working on and if we can get 10 people to link up I will do another little giveaway!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up