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

a parade of pillowcases and laces

  

One of the fave things I´m into nowadays is white pillowcases, made some a couple of weeks ago. 

Yeah, I´ve collected a few already, it all started during my  holiday when I brought home a very pretty tablecloth and a pillowcase made by the women of Cyprus. They make pretty laces and in every town we visited, women have had their lace work done outside the house, so to speak in  their patios and sometimes these women sell their works directly right at their doorsteps...

I love to put up all the pillows when the bed is not in used, that  way it gives a romantic touch to the whole room..

 The tablecloth from Cyprus is big enough to cover the bed  and sometimes I use it as bedcover in the guest bedroom.  The crochet skirt is actually a  tablecloth which I also use to  give pretty decor effect to the bed when not in use. I made it some  20 years  back  when I commuted by train to work..

Some of the white pillowcases I have were handdowns   from "Oma", hubby´s grandma... She was an avid crafter like me,  she loved to embroider her pillowcases and I guess am lucky to  have inherited all her works. 

I found a pair of white pillowcases with monograms from  a fleamarket organized by schoolchildren in our vicinity,  lucky find though( see below photo)  ´cause the price tag was really  just a fraction of a cost, giveaways as such!

This is the center of the Cyprus tablecloth......

..... and the edge lacing on all sides.

A pillowcase from Cyprus

 A friend´s gift for my birthday

I got this from a fleamarket dealer for 0,50 Euro cents. To think of the work

involved in crocheting a simple lace like this.. it is not only a bargain, it´s a treasure..

 I made this one, I wanted to put an embroidered piece in  the center

 but later changed my mind and crocheted the middle part and stitched

 this onto the main pillowcase by hand..

Oma´s masterpiece using the richelieu embroidery  technique, cutting

 out the outline after embroidery was done and attached a piece of  what looked like a net as background of the whole work... it is indeed a piece of art!

 I´ve finally decided to finish the above pair during the last  couple  of weeks... Actually they were hand quilted by me as well  as lace edges were crocheted long beforehand.  The crocheted edges  were  intended to be laces for a bed canopy that I wanted to make, but it  did not materialize because I opted to use a different fabric for  the canopy panels... I will still continue to add to this collection and hope to find more treasures like these...

I hope everyone´s doing good and enjoying Sunday.. 

Wishing you all to have a good start of the week!!!

Til next,

Mercy

White On White - Pillowcase

 My concept about white on white is something of an  embroidery using white background and stitches using white thread . It can be linen that has monograms on it or simply a tablecloth with flower designs.. I called this project white on white because it has all the attributes of being one....handquilted, thread used is white, white background and above all the white crocheted lace. 

The crocheted laces above were made by me without having any options on what to do with them... I had the thread and I wanted to crochet something while watching TV or listening to music. . At first, I intended to use them as lace for the skirt of the bed canopy and it stayed being just a lace for really a long time, something like 5 years or so until I  decided to use them last week.

 The quilted top of the pillowcase has a simple quilt pattern, simlpy criss-crossing lines using masking tape as guide. The middle part had been a flower design although when quilted, it wasn´t clear enough to see that it is a Cluster of flowers.

Anyway, the quilt top had also been there for a long time and was never touched for a couple of years...So,  last week I took all my efforts to start with the blue pillowcase
which I have featured in my post before this one called
http://challengingartsandcrafts.blogspot.co.at/2013/09/its-finished-handquilted-blue-white.html   

I had to join both Ends of the lace by Hand before attaching it to the quilted top.  

 ....then I pinned it in place and sew the sides of the lace to the quilt top.

Then I set to work on the back side of the pillow, cutting a white Cotton fabric into two parts with an overlapping opening using those vintage button I used for the blue & white pillowcase.. 

The size of the pillowcase is 50cm x 50cm (19.68 inches x 19.68 inches) 

Now that this is done, I have to tackle the 2nd pillowcase that is  part of this set of 2 and it will surely be as pretty as this one...

Here´s wishing everyone a happy weekend ! 

Linked to : Meladora´s Creation for Crochet