After the rush of getting my MFA application in place in December, January feels positively leisurely. I've had a few work projects to take care of, but I've also had more free time for doin' a little crafting. Here are some of the recent fruits of my labor. The bird coasters above were a gift for my friend Margaret's birthday, using a 'dorable birdy design from Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching book.
After buying a blue rug for my office, the brown pillow covers on my futon seemed out of place, so I've been plotting their replacement for a few weeks now. I decided to take a stab at free-handing an embroidery design. I doodled an homage to (some might say rip-off of) the beautiful fabric designs of Kristen Doran. I love, love her work but it's a tad out of my price range. It was a pretty fun project, taking me just a couple of hours total for the embroidery and the pillow itself is my first attempt at an envelope-style pillow. Trust me to master putting in zippers (which I'm glad I know how to do) before learning this much easier method.
Then I made the above pillows for my futon, all from clearance fabric I found at JoAnn. My previous pillows were all solid fabric, which is fine and dandy, but I'm really enjoying playing with combining fabrics, colors and textures. And I think the cats, who spend the majority of their time on the futon, really really appreciate the time and effort I put into these things.
I made the above pillow for the Morris chair in the living room and it is, if may say so myself, just perfect.
Aren't these retro fabrics wonderful? I ordered them from Repro Depot, of course. People I know keep having babies and I just love these gender-neutral textiles and the possibilities they offer me. I still don't know what they want to be yet, but I have some ideas and some time.
A close-up of the green fabric, which just might be my favorite. Enjoy.