Sadia’s Blog

Some while back a dear friend asked me to create heirloom type pillow cases for her. I sat and pondered over what designs to use to create the pillow cases. In my eye, I could envision crochet type lace edging with some delicate embroidery in monotone colors. As I was working at the time with Tambour Lace II (crochet) collection, I had the perfect edging in mind with the entredeux already within the lace work to weave ribbons through.

Around that time, I was doing a special trunk show at the local Babylock dealer and had just finished the Heirloom Crystals II wedding anniversary quilt. The design gave me ideas and I wondered what it would be like to stitch out the design in one color with perhaps a bit of gold metallic as the tiny little centers of all the flowers. With the blueprint and stitchouts in  hand, I went to show my friend the ideas. My friend loved the idea but was not pleased with the single color look, she wanted pastel colors. The gold metallic although interesting was not a feasible idea as the pillow cases would have to be washed often. Never mind that I repeatedly told her that metallics are amazing these days but I understood her hesitancy. So, after spending two days in stitching out various  other samples, I finally settled on baby pastels colors on the design with a heart design in the center. Showing the sample to my friend, she was pleased so off I went to finish her pillows. While stitching out the pillows, I had to decide what to do with my sample. I had stitched it on a large piece of offwhite 100% cotton. Aha, create a pillow case out of it and that is what I did.

Now, showing samples at an embroidery meet, one is limited to space and ofcourse showcasing everything one may possess. The pillowcase was nice looking but it was large. So, just to see what it would look like I created a form about half the size of the pillow case making the pillow case edge drop in front like an envelope. The pillow case was now a perfect size for me to showcase at my booth at a show as well as a novel idea!

The picture is one with the gold metallic in the center of the each flower. This was the sample stitchout….what a way to use the sample.