Thursday, June 9, 2011

Pillow Bonanza

dresden plate, detail
dresden plate + liberty of london tana lawn = o la la!

Those who follow me on facebook or flickr got a little sneak peak at the makings of this pillow before the festival, but here is the final product in all it's glory! I am quite happy and relieved to be able to have a tangible version of my vision (isn't that always the most satisfying thing?!) and am itching to keep one of them for myself...still considering that. Either which way, the first is live and in the shop now though, just waiting for someone to snag it up and give it a proper home.

Why so relieved though? Well, turns out that dresden plate is a DOOZY! As I found out the night before my last day of prep before the show, there are a few snazzy methods (including english paper piecing, needle-turn applique, and raw edge machine applique with fusible webbing just to name a few) that make the whole process a lot easier but found myself with none of the tools necessary and I must confess this is the first sewing project that has made me swear and cry this much. C'est la vie, it happens sometimes right? I finally decided to trim my rounded petals to be triangles and as 2 o'clock in the morning rolled around,  I called it a night so I could get up early and take another stab at appliqueing the inner circle in the morning. It's not perfect, but I will remember that I am capable of conquering any scary new sewing project every time I see that slightly crooked top stitch. In my mind, that is exactly what makes handmade so very special and unique: an automated machine just can't allow for such a story and the items made with them don't carry that kind of history.

dresden plate + liberty of london pillow
"The popular name for this quilt, Dresden Plate, reflects the romance of the Victorian Era with it's love of elaborate decoration on household items and décor. Dresden, Germany was a center of 19th century romanticism movement in art, one that included the fine decoration of porcelain. The plates were embellished with elaborate design using flowers, fruits and foliage. The beautiful plates would surely have been admired by women of the early 20th century." —www.patternsfromhistory.com

As I worked on this, I fell harder for the Liberty tana lawn. The prints are the perfect blend of old and new, of nostalgic and fresh. They feel like a very British version of the brightly colored scraps of feedsack that women of the 1920's and 30's in America would have been using when they popularized this quilt block. I ended up using another chunk of it to do a couple patchwork pillows, one of which sold at the show and the other pictured below. All of these are now up in the shop as well:

pillows

So many shiny new things, I can barely handle all the excitement! Now that I am back to focusing on my etsy shop, I can work at a slightly more leisurely pace and I do have a few new things up my sleeve that I'm planning to release this June/July. The feel of summer is beginning to take hold and is influencing my thoughts about new embroidery patterns and sachets, but no sneak peeks just yet. I'm off to get some of these thoughts on paper and will share here as soon as they are presentable...

8 comments:

Victoria said...

Amazing! I can't believe how detailed that is. That takes talent, well done! I love the fabric choices too. :)

Meeling said...

Beautiful!! I love the way it looks like a color wheel too...graduates around the circle. Dresden in hard to do...I've been sewing for close to 30 years and quilting for 10+ of that and I know how challenging it can be...well done!!

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

Seriously? WOW! Those are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!!

Maureen Cracknell Handmade said...

I have yet to make dresden anything (of course you know I'd make a pillow too), yours is perfect!!! And, I especially love that peacock feather fabric, so cute!

Sarah said...

Beautiful - love the yellow cusion!

thestoryofkat said...

thank you so much everyone! It was the most challenging thing I've tackled in a while but it's so nice to be able to share the end result here with you :)

Unknown said...

Well despite all of your challenges and tears, it turned out just beautifully! And what a lovely way to showcase those fabrics. You get quite a punch while not having to use a ton of yardage!

Bethany Dirksen said...

That pillow really reminds me of one we had at my house growing up. Same basic design shape...bring back memories.