a floral blue pillowcase

The main fabric used here was a leftover of the fabric I used to cover the headboard of our blue guest bedroom (below photo) ...it´s from my  blog called  Parade of Pillowcases.

I  make and collect pillowcases, below are so far what I have gathered. I  use various methods to make and grow my collection... some of the white ones were either crocheted, embroidered and quilted. Others were flea market finds.

The blue pillow was intentionally made as a Mother´s Day gift to my mom in-law a few years back when she had a blue sofa. The strips that framed the quilted center came from an english stripe fabric from a curtain shop. 

I cut the blue stripe part and used 4 strips to make the border for the quilted center. I have adapted the quilted design from Ako´s Lone Star Quilt and used it here..

I think, the overall effect of the blue fabric plus the floral strips that framed the center came out nicely. What do you think?

I could see that mom in -law liked and appreciated it for she proudly displayed it on her sofa for a long time... now that she has a new sofa in grey, I should think of another project to suit the new sofa color...

I hope that the blue pillowcase inspired you...

As usual,  it´s a gray in gray weather today in Vienna!!! 

At least the hyacinth´s sooner blooming gives me a bit of consolation. Oh my... Spring where art thou?

Hope your Friday is wonderful!

xoxo,

Mercy

Partying at this fabulous links: FrenchCountryCottage - Feathered Nest Friday

cushion covers - making and collecting

Cushion covers became my passion when I started

the  Blue & white Sampler Quilt I made about a decade ago..

The blue & white ones have been made by me some  years ago and the more they get faded each year,  the more prettier they have become.

My collection keeps growing...I have blogged on the   white on  white ones  (below pic) I made & collected before and still collect, which were mostly quilted but basically with embroideries and laces.

to find more pics and details of the above granny square  cushion covers,  simply click your  

choice below  starting  from left to right..

pillow 1 .... pillow 2 ......    pillow 3, 

crocheted white cushion cover

4 quilted star pillowcases but with different  part templates...

The one on the right was handquilted and the  left one
 was quilted with the machine. 

Thank you for visiting and reading this blog... have a good start of the coming week!


I´m linking this to :
Show & Tell Friday
Feathered Nest Friday - 26
Once Upon a Time in a Bed of Flowers

just a bunch of flowers...

The four week -holiday was long enough for me to be able to make a few projects while relaxing at the same time... there was no stress, so I set to make some of my creative ideas into something and one of those is this set of pillowcases..

The main fabric was discovered in one of my flea market sprees and was once used as material for a a stylish bag that I made for my friend named Tess

From the above bag, there had been a leftover

 fabric that complements the 2 green sofas we bought recently.

The various shades of blue, green, yellow, beige and cream made the fabric design pleasing for the eyes,  so,  I thought of making these "bunch of flowers "  into something that would make the sofa look livelier...

There was enough material to cover 2 pillowcases of 50cm x 50cm. The back opening of the pillowcase is an overlap so there are no buttons or zip used.

The two smaller pillows in front are vintage ones that I have since 25 years... I think all look lovely set together with the new ones under the olive green background.

I´m linking this post to :
Feathered Nest Friday - 26
Show & Tell Friday
google+ communities - Home Decor

Over & done - granny square pillowcase 3/3

Yuhuuuu!!! 

The 3rd one is finally done... after this project, I might not be crocheting pillowcases for a long time, LOL!

This is actually a classic granny design and each of the square

 is so  easy to make,  in just a few minutes, you´ll be 

done with it while watching a thriller on tv.

Each square is stitched on to the first square and so on...

Once all nine grannies were stitched together, layers of single crochet stiches

will be made to frame the pillowcase top and  picots were added to give the edge a lacy look.

These flowerettes were made extra and were attached/sewn

 by  hand to the center of each of the square. Cotton fabric 

was used for the back side of the pillowcase 

 and buttons were sewn for the closure.

Photo below was taken near my office in 

Vienna´s city center, hope you enjoy the colors as well as the

 colors of the granny squares.

Happy Sunday !

granny square pillowcase no. 2/3

Hi everyone! 

Today I´d like to blog on the latest project I did the last three weeks.

Finally (!!!), both granny square pillowcases nr. 2 and nr. 3 are now done 

and I was relieved. These two are part of a set of three, intended for 

our  2 new sofas that  have olive green color... The first granny

 was posted a couple of weeks back and you may  see it here. 

Here, I´m sharing the 2nd pillowcase, the 3rd one will be posted

 on the next blog.

I have ordered these yarns in August of last year without a particular 

project in mind...but since we got the new  sofas in Spain, I thougth  of 

making pillowcases to decorate the plain sofas with vibrant 

colored pillowcases... I was thinking of crocheting while watching films

 in the evenings.. so the granny square pillowcases were born.

clasic granny square motif

28 square pieces were tediously made

then attached to the edge of the center part

the small squares were sewn to the edge of the center part. 

Then single stitches were done on the edge to "frame"

the design.

picots were added to give it a lacey look and it´s now done!!!

Wishing you a good start of the week!

Granny square pillowcase - 1/3

I started this project last weekend, working on each of the 16 squares

 everyday. One square is done for about 15 minutes, I did some during train rides, but mostly while watching tv...

I have 2 new sofas to decorate and both are olive green.

And so,  I decided I will make colorful pillowcases and this is one

of those.

The squares were easily made and each of the 4 rounds has 

a different color..

I decided I would have a white border for all to give

a lighter look.. I hand sew ( not crocheted)each piece ..

....then added the border in red and white...

I added the red border picking up some of the reds in the squares.

.....then I added the white to give a neutral frame...

Lastly, I used cotton fabric for the backside..

...and that´s it, finally finished today!

Happy Weekend !

Til next,

Mercy