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

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