My niece and her husband have a little one coming soon! I saw lots of cute elephant-themed items on their registry, so I purchased a couple and then bought some flannel to make some burp cloths. I had one little strip left over so dreamed up a pillow for the rocking chair, too. Can’t wait to meet the newest member of the family! ♥
Since I have lots of hand-me-down vintage linens and doilies, I’ve been collecting ideas for using them in new ways. One idea I’ve seen several times is to use the piece as a-la-mode on a pillow. When I saw this pink polka-dot brown flannel next to this pastel pink table scarf, it was love at first sight! I simply centered the scarf on the cut out fabric, stitched it on, and completed the pillow as usual. Mmmm . . . brown and pink! ♥
Since I have so many colorful red and green decorations and busy prints up for Christmas (like here, here, here, here, here, here, and here!) I decided to go completely the other way on my newest idea . . . somewhat of a visual trick since “Deck the Halls” is such a cheerful song! I used turquoise chevron flannel with the same color embroidery floss, then I played around with the size and placement of the words to replicate the chorus’s inflection, pauses, and pitch. I love the way it makes your eyes say, “Ahhhhh . . . ” Oh, and the embroidery hoops were hand-me-downs and I already had the fabric and floss in my stash, so this was a “free” project. I love those, don’t you? ♥
I’ve been making lots of rag-edge burpies lately . . . it was so much fun to shop for all those cute pink and blue flannel prints! This time, though, the parents-to-be had some very specific color requests: black and yellow burpies and a zebra-striped receiving blanket. What fun! You can check out HomemadebyJill for the burpie tutorial, and the receiving blanket is simply two squares of fabric stitched together with rick-rack in the seam (the way my grandmother often used to make them). Put on your sunglasses! ♥
PILLOWS A-LA-MODE 