Cherry Pillow

The pattern for this cherry pillow was from a book called Serendipity by Ginger Cookie Company and was perfect for our home. My husband deals in the fruit industry and we are surrounded by cherries in Northern Michigan.

The background is from a yellowish/gold wool with a reddish wool border. The cherries are blanket-stitched on with DMC floss, the stems and leaves are in scraps of green wool also attached by hand stitching. The outside border is from a chenille fabric in a deep yellow hue.

The ruffle is from a yellow/red calico fabric and the back of the pillow is in a reddish plain cotton duck fabric.

This pillow goes well in our living room, especially during cherry season! It brings back many memories of picking cherries during the summer, attempting to make enough money to purchase school clothes. My husband and I are blessed to be living on the very property where my Mom, Dad, brother, Uncle and I picked both sweet and sour cherries! The cherry juice running up the arms, sweat bees stinging the backs of your knees, the beloved shanty, and the creek that provided the very best and coldest water for our enjoyment...what was work then is now a beautiful chapter in the story of my life.

Spring Heart

I started with off-white wool felt and cut out a small heart and then started cutting out various sized flowers in spring colors. As you can see, I blanket-stitched a narrow green felt heart shaped piece of felt just inside the larger felt piece. To attach the flowers, I decided to leave them dimensional so just sewed them on with beads in the center of each. Wool felt leaves were cut out and attached with DMC floss and for a more realistic touch a little "vining" was added. When I blanket-stitched the piece together I added a pale pink ribbon for hanging and included some lavender with the polyfil. Perhaps this project will remind us that spring is near!!!

Dream big!

In the economic downturn we currently are experiencing it seems like a good idea to dream big! My inspiration was a wool-felt heart on which I hand stitched Dream with pale blue DMC floss and also added some glass beads in the same color. I then blanket-stitched the Dream piece onto a pale blue cotton fabric which seemed to add a little depth! I chose a pretty piece of blue calico fabric and cut out two heart shaped pieces, then went to the ribbon drawer and there was the perfect burgundy compliment sheer piece of ribbon for hanging. I placed the ribbon in between the two calico pieces and sewed together, leaving a space for turning. After stuffing with polyfil, I blindstitched the opening. What an inspirational uplift on any peg or doorknob, reminding us to dream big and keep the faith!