Rediscovering My Passion for Crafts

 I have always admired my friends who are creative, who produce and display their "art" in their homes. You walk into their house and know right away, these are artists! 

I love handmade items; knit or woven pillows, macramé and woven wall art.  I like to knit and have made many scarfs (and baby blankets) for people over the years.  When we moved, we wanted to limit all of the "extra stuff" we had.  My daughter's had left a lot of the things I made them at the house when they moved out on their own. When I was packing, going thru everything, they chose not to have me keep or send it for them.  I regret that, as I really loved so many of the projects I did; the colors, the stitch I chose to learn - many of them had "extras" such as antique buttons or jewels sewn on them.  

I recently knit my mom a scarf... she loved it!  I had one extra skein of yarn so I made myself a cowl and thought, "this would make a beautiful pillow! " I could not find that yarn again, so I went to my new favorite yarn store in New Hope called Twist!  The owner of the shop is lovely and everyone I have met there has been so helpful.  I bought a beautifully dyed yarn called Rasta and fell in love with the colors.  

The knitters there that day helped me figure out how large of a panel I could make, using a seed stitch with one skein of yarn ... I brought a sample swatch of my knitting to show them, to ask their advice.

I used a circular needle #13 and am so happy with how it came out!

Here you can see how vibrant the colors are!

This yarn brand has so many gorgeous hand dyed colorways and they are so soft and saturated! Offered in so many colorways!

When I finished I wanted to make a pillow shell in a color that would work so that you would not see it "grin" through. I planned to go to the fabric store to buy solid fabric and a pillow insert.

I got very lucky and found a ready made pillow with a very cool design at Target for $20 in the perfect color .... however I did not want a square pillow, I wanted a boudoir  (rectangle) shape.

I opened the pillow at the seam, took out some of the stuffing, cut the fabric back to the size I wanted.  I then sewed the pillow closed to fit the size of my knitting; (pillow was 18 x 18 in - I made it 18 x 14 in.). Using embroidery thread to match the base pillow, I stitched the my knitting to the back of the pillow, so that I could use the pillow on either side!

I could not be  happier with the outcome!

I love adding my own touch to the house, especially when it comes out this good!

Don't let your inhibitions or fear that it won't be "good enough" stop you from allowing your creative mind to work!