Greetings from the lunatic fringe! There’s nothing like a beckoning blog post deadline to inspire an all-and-out sprint into crafting insanity. In the last post I promised a winter holiday variation of my pillow pattern and so I had to fulfill that commitment . . . didn’t I?
I neglected to mention originally that I’d limited myself to supplies on hand to create the autumn leaf pillow (bartering/borrowing permitted, of course). That was my intention again, and I did that . . . kinda . . . but I had to invest in a couple things—NOT fabric though, that was all stash inventory!
Cool & Useful Stuff
505 Spray and Fix (www.sprayandfix.com): Long-arm machine quilter Elaine Beattie turned me on to this aerosol glue. In this case it worked wonderfully to adhere the paper template securely (yet not permanently) to the fabric for machine embroidery.
Golden Threads Quilting Paper 18” wide (http://www.goldenthreads.com): I traced my 16” x 16” hand-drawn pattern onto the paper, tacked it to the fabric with spray glue, and traced the design with a darning foot. Easy! Although next time I’ll adhere it to the wrong side of the fabric so I won’t go cross-eyed picking tiny paper shreds from overlapping thread lines after I’ve torn off the pattern paper.
Japanese seed beads (www.whimbeads.com): Aside from broad color, finish, and size array, these beads have consistently sized holes so loading beads onto a needle is much easier; they slide on without sticking. Pictured: a variety of gold-toned Size 11, Size 8, twisted bugles, and hexagons.
Superior Threads (www.superiorthreads.com): Variegated thread in honey to bronze tones. Selected King Tut #991.
So, to recap, click the Pattern Library tab and scroll to the winter variation of the holiday pattern. Use the Autumn variation to build the pillow and the Winter variation (Part II) to embellish it.
Okay, I know “easy” is a relative term; but really, this is an achievable project with dazzling results. I drew the pattern freehand (so you can do it as well) and the beading only took a couple of afternoons this past weekend. Nothing crazy. Here’s a time-saving hint for beading: load a few beads onto the needle at a time and then tack them onto the fabric with a basting stitch (3 beads is optimal and gaps of 1/8” to 1/4” look natural). “Lock off” a run of beads (maybe 2” or so) with a back-stitch for reinforcement. That’s it: go forth and build a beaded pillow!
Wishing you the very best for an enjoyable holiday weekend! Remember to comment on our most-recent group post for a chance to win handmade holiday table decor!
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