Wonderfully Made

May 23, 2011

What a weekend. It was sort of one of those perfect kind of weekends, when there were not too many commitments, a good dose of family, visits with friends, and some time to garden, sew, work on projects, and relax.

One of the big projects I finished was a summer mini-makeover of the guest room. It all started with watching an episode of Sarah's House, which happened to coincide with me finishing a pillow job for someone.

Pillows make such a difference. If you change out a pillow, you change your room. Jenna had me do several new covers for her family room, and I worked out a few techniques that I had never done before. That was enough to inspire me to to my own pillow covers.

So, to the stash I went. I found some wonderful English tropical decorator fabric that was given to me years ago. That covered two pillows... a simple case with tie closures.

Next, I decided on a coral print fabric which I thought would look cool quilted. So I quilted it ( by machine, with transparent thread) A simple envelope back.

Last, two euro-shams from a stripe that I found at Joann's to pull the other two prints together. One of may favorite places to find pillow fabric is in the remnant bins. So often, a yard or less is enough to do a pillow or two ( if you do a plain back) My two euro shams were made from remnant fabric, and have a zipper back and flange.

Oh, and one other tip? I got a standard sized pillow at Wal-mart for $2.50. Then I grabbed it by the end, shook the crazy out of it till all the filling was at one end, and serged the other end (without filling) so I had reasonably good substitute for a purchased 20" square pillow-form. For $2.50!

The dresser got repainted, lamps switched out from the household lamp supply, a worn red quilt put on the end of the bed and a few accessories.

After changing the position of the bed, it was done....a comfortable, sunny, delightful summer guest room.

All this, because I had an idea about a pillow. I just may visit and stay awhile!