Spring Fever

Making this pillow has given me some Spring fever!  The other day R.M. from A Day In The Life was making the most beautiful flowers. Go check out her site for a tutorial and also here (Refabulous), where she learned how.  It made me want to try the flower melting.  I love cherry blossoms and thought this would be cute combined.

I guess you need polyester fabric to make the flowers so they will melt over the flame.  I mostly have white cotton fabric.  So, I found at Target this panel on clearance. I don't think I could have found this much fabric for under five dollars at the fabric store..

100% Polyester :)

I had picked up a couple extra placemats on clearance and used this as my pillow form again.  I found a cherry blossom branch I liked and sketched it with pencil onto the mat.  I then outlined the branch with embroidery floss. 

Next, cut your circles, and then glue, or SEW, or whatever....I'm lazy, so I prefer gluing.  I figured I had to glue the rhinestone on, so why not glue the entire thing?  It's a decorative pillow...right?

I love the green and spring feeling it brings to my house!  Time to move the pink out......after all of these Valentine's projects....it's beginning to look like Barbie moved into my front room! :)

Linking to

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Some What Simple

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Shaggy Quilted Hearts

 This is my kind of quilting.....sloppy!  No need for detail sewing. These hearts have a raw edge that you top stitch.

A few years ago, my mother in law (her name is Kathy) helped me make a sunflower wall hanging using this method.  I thought it would be fun to try with hearts. 

I didn't intend to make pillows, but as I was piecing them together the idea came to me.

  I had a ton of pink dyed and coffee stained filters left from my last project, so I used them with the fabric.  I love their texture! 

My topstitching was NOT 100% accurate, but that's alright!  Don't cringe Kathy! One day I'm going to spotlight her quilts.  They are AMAZING!   

I added a little tulle. Is that how you spell it?  Why oh why does blogger not have spellcheck?

Here's how you do it...if you want to try.

Sew them back together.

 I sewed and stuffed this pillow and sewed the extra two onto linen and put them into an old frame. 

Good sewing skills are not required! :)

Freezer Paper Pillow

I am fascinated by freezer paper stencils! After trying it out yesterday on the love sacks, I started thinking about all the possibilities! Pottery Barn has a linen/burlap pillow with red stripes that I like, so I tried copying it.  My pillow did not turn out nearly as cute as theirs, so I'm too ashamed to post a picture of theirs.  I over did it on the spray paint and it spilled over into the fabric.  I tried to scrub it a little but the lines aren't super distinct in some areas. Lesson learned, take it easy on the paint! :)

I used a straight edge ruler to make strips with the freezer paper. I then ironed it on spacing evenly.

I highly recommend these rulers.  I have used them for so much more than quilting.

All ready to spray!

I love peeling off the paper when it's dried.  I was a little bummed that it bled, but I used scraps, so I wasn't out too much. 

Here it is paired with my mother-in-law's ~wonderful~Valentine quilt she made for our family.  I love that quilt!

Felting Wool Hearts

When I was playing around in the felt the other day making the felt door hanger, I found my felting tool that I picked up a couple of years ago.  I had bought strands of real wool, and heard about a tip of dying it with Kool-aid.  Yes, I dyed in wonderful colors of cherry, watermelon, and black cherry.  It really worked with a little vinegar added.  I also found that real wool felt sold on the bolt works well with this tool. I had a pretty red wool felt on hand....not dyed with kool-aid :)

This is a wicked tool.  The needles are SO sharp! I have pricked my fingers several times.

Target had some placemats on clearance. So, I used them as my pillow forms to felt on. I cut a few heart shapes out of the felt.

I first stuffed them with fiberfill.  I'm not an expert on this, but I think there's a specific tool you use under the fabric to punch the needle into.  I have used a piece of upholstery foam before.  Since this is a pillow, the stuffing inside worked fine.

Then you punch away!

You punch until the fibers felt or pull into the fabric

I made a couple more felt flowers to sew on.  I actually doubled the circles, to make the flower fuller.

The texture is pretty cool on the felt after you punch it all in.

The pillow is nothing fancy, but it was fun trying out the felting.

Linking up to Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff~Valentine's

& Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

Valentine heart pillows...or ornies?

Ornies..funny word, I think that's what these are called.  Ornaments without strings that you gather into a bowl or basket?  Anyway, Nicole and I were in a little "ornie" phase a couple of years ago and we made tons of these little heart pillows.  We use to make everything grubby and distressed, I still love a little grubby, I just have to be careful, because I get carried away and then it looks like it belongs in the garbage! :)

These are pretty simple and self-explanatory to make.

Find a heart shape and size you prefer......

Trace onto fabric and cut (you can tea dye the fabric to give it a grubby look)

Sew right sides together

 and leave a section to stuff,

turn inside out and stuff,

hand-stitch the heart closed,

and then we tied some burlap strips around them.

....I love the fabrics, they are so fun to pull out each year.